Word association with opera: opulence, vocal virtuosity, passionate scripts, evocative scenery, orchestral beauty. Even in a relatively modest presentation, such as chamber opera, or in its avant-garde forms of music theatre, this genre connotes excess. Originally the product of aristocratic or courtly patronage, opera remains in the twentieth century a lavish appeal to the senses, a generally costly conjunction of drama, music, voice and spectacle. Often more extravagant in its requirements than even the dramatic theatre, given the need for orchestra, opera would seem to be at odds with the current financial restraints in Canada and with the onerous political cant about quantifiable usefulness. As individual provinces and the country as a whole scramble to establish a balanced budget, arts and humanities groups are asked to account for themselves as culture becomes incorporated into a great ledger in which fiscal feasibility translates as the prime sign of merit. Fortunately, though, opera in Canada still evokes a surplus of performative acts and possibilities affected by, but not solely delimited by, use and budgets. This issue of CTR explores some of the diverse meanings of opera in Canada and its ability to generate meaning for contemporary audiences and theatre professionals, several of whom obligingly lent their distinctive voices to our receptive ears. Further, we have attempted to signal the range of operatic occurrences through articles offering detailed readings of staged opera and its crucial non-musical components (such as set design, costumes, and marketing) as well as through surveys of the topics that recur in contemporary operas. If a renegade from the current political climate, opera itself has infused political acuteness with emotional poignancy in its thematic explorations. For instance, George Elliott Clarke and James Rolfe graphically and movingly expose the atrocities of Nova Scotian slavery in Beatrice Chancy, the full libretto and musical excerpts of which are included here. Opera, retaining its original capacity for formal revision and for the exploration of diverse passions, continues to express desires obstreperous, dangerous, joyful and lusty.