One of the highlight performances at this year’s Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax is an opera about a man who died on the floor of the Vancouver airport nearly five years ago.
Composer John Plant co-wrote the piece about would-be immigrant Robert Dziekanski.
“The story is told entirely from the imagined voices of Robert and his mother. It starts in Poland the eve of his departure, takes him through the railway voyage and his first experiences at the airport and his excitement on arrival and then of course, the terrible things that happened to him when he was there.”
Dziekanski died in October of 2007 after being repeatedly stunned by an RCMP taser.
“He really was an extraordinary person and I guess, in a way, I came to love this person that I’d never known and to feel for him. I couldn’t help feeling kind of an affection for this man that I’d never met and real sorrow for what happened to him.”
Plant says Dziekanski’s mother — Zofia Cizowski — has promised to attend Thursday’s opening night.
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