Regina, Opera by Elisha Denburg

Toronto’s Essential Opera presents a double-bill of two new operas by young Canadian composers. Etiquette, by Monica Pearce, explores the politeness and perfection of Emily Post (“Miss Manners”), against the harsher facts of life as seen through the eyes of the acerbic New York writer, Dorothy Parker. Regina, by Elisha Denburg, traces the recent discovery of Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained a rabbi, who died in a concentration camp. A student, Anna, unearths Regina’s records in a quest for redemption.