HOWL
A wolf goes missing. A river begins to fall apart. What happens when the creature nobody noticed was holding everything together?
Touring schools across British Columbia in March 2027, with four professional singers, a pianist and a set built to travel. Music by Chris Thornborrow · Libretto by Sarah Henstra · A co-production with Pacific Opera Victoria.
The Story
HOWL is a lyrical animal fable. When a wolf disappears from the valley, the riverside ecosystem around it starts to unravel—and the animals who are left have to work out what has gone missing, and why it mattered. It is funny, suspenseful and theatrically inventive, and it treats its young audience as capable of sitting with a real question. This is not a cute or cartoonish show. It has mystery and weight, and it leaves students with something to argue about on the way back to class. "Like the echo of a distant howl, this opera lingers—asking questions about balance, fear, and belonging." — Chris Thornborrow and Sarah Henstra
WHAT A BOOKING LOOKS LIKE
Everything arrives with us. We need a gym, a multipurpose room or a hall, and a space for the company to warm up.
AUDIENCE Grades 3–6 / Written for this age group and workshopped in front of it.
TOURING March 2027 / Across British Columbia.
RUN TIME HOWL is 45 minutes in length and is accompanied by a Q+A with the cast and learning materials for educators. THE COMPANY Six people / Four singers, a pianist, a stage manager and a minimal touring set.
FEE $1,000 + GST / Subsidised places available through the Vancouver Opera Guild.
WHAT YOU NEED
School theatre preferred (or gym hall), performance area must be 30 feet wide x 30 feet deep x 11 feet high, not including audience seating
2 power outlets within 50' of the stage.
Change rooms (preferably male/female) for singers that are not shared by students.
Washrooms that are not shared by students. (Ex. Could be a staff washroom).
No painting or construction will occur in or around the performance space during the week prior to the performance (singers cannot perform with paint, glue, Vera-thane fumes, etc.).
Arrival time: 90 minutes before performance
WHY TEACHERS BOOK THIS TOUR
It connects to what you are already teaching. Ecosystems, interdependence and how living things rely on one another, alongside music, drama and language arts. The study guide maps the links for you. A calm way into a big subject. Many students already carry worry about the natural world. HOWL is an inquiry, not a campaign: it hands children good questions rather than settled answers, and leaves room for every view in the room.
For many students, a first. We prioritise smaller cities, rural and remote districts, and higher-needs urban schools—classrooms where a professional live performance is rare or unprecedented.
1972 — The year Vancouver Opera In Schools began, as an initiative of the Vancouver Opera Guild. 1.6 million — Children who have seen a VOIS production, the largest touring program of its kind in Canada. 70+ — Schools reached by Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera’s last provincial tour, The Flight of the Hummingbird, in springs 2020 & 2024.
Made with students, not just for them
HOWL was commissioned through Opera Sprouts, a program Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria built together to develop new operas for young audiences, supported by the Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund through the Victoria Foundation, OPERA America's Opera Fund, and a Private Foundation. Emerging Canadian composer–librettist teams spent a year developing original works for school touring, mentored by artists from both companies, including Leslie Dala, Vancouver Opera's Head of Music and Associate Music Director, and Giuseppe Pietraroia, Principal Conductor of Pacific Opera Victoria. Students were part of the making. In Victoria, Pacific Opera Victoria In Victoria, Pacific Opera Victoria ran classroom sessions in Happy Valley Elementary, Quadra Elementary, and Central Middle School using curriculum-linked lessons by educator Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor. In Vancouver, we spent two extended visits at Captain James Cook Elementary, where students worked out for themselves what opera is—their definition was "when feelings get too big for words"—then wrote their own duet scenes and heard professional singers perform their words back to them. The work was then developed in workshop with singers from our Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists program and presented to student and public audiences before HOWL was chosen for the commission.
More than a single visit
Everything around the tour is built on one question: what holds a system together, and how would we know if it were gone? Booked schools get months of material, not just an hour in the gym. Study guide and classroom resources. Built jointly with Pacific Opera Victoria, so the inquiry starts before we arrive and carries on after we leave. A living online library (October 2026 – June 2027). Short articles and three-to-five minute videos from scientists, ecologists and land stewards working in BC, released once or twice a month and tied to moments in the opera. Send us what your students make. Classrooms respond to what they watch and read, and we publish the responses back to the whole province.
Bring HOWL to your school
We are booking this tour directly with schools. Tell us you are interested and we will be in touch when dates open this fall—earlier if you have questions in the meantime.
Good to know
Registering interest does not commit your school to anything.
Subsidised places are available for higher-needs schools through the Vancouver Opera Guild.
Neighbouring schools can share a visit. Tell us who else is nearby and we will try to route the tour to you both.
For any questions, please email Janie Sinn, HOWL School Tour Manager, at jsinn@vancouveropera.ca.
Opera Sprouts Funders
Funds were received from the Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund through the Victoria Foundation
The Opera Sprouts Initiative received funding from OPERA America's Opera Fund
With special thanks to a Private Foundation
BC Opera in Schools Funders
Generously supported by the Azrieli Foundation
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
