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Baby Kintyre (2009)

  • Radio serial opera in 6 episodes
  • 3 men (T,T, Bs-Bar.), 3 women (S,S,Ms) child soprano and chamber ensemble
  • Premiere broadcast November/December, 2009, 
  • Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

In the summer of 2007, CBC investigators Mary Wiens and John Nicol brought an enthralled listening audience the tale of a mummified baby found in the floorboards of an East Toronto home.  Further investigation to uncover the origins of the child, now known as “Baby Kintyre” revealed a cast of characters straight from a mystery novel:  the glamourous vamp, the mysterious houseguest, the prudish and suicidal wife, the adulterous husband and the simple little girl whose bedroom ceiling became the resting place of a horrible secret.  Set against a backdrop of 1920’s Toronto,  the radio opera serial Baby Kintyre was ripped right out of the current headlines and originally aired on five consecutive broadcasts of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera”.

Burry had always wanted to create an opera in the style of the old radio dramas and this story seemed to fill the bill.  The opera contains original interview material from a 10-year-old girl (then 93) who lived in the house, and news stories broadcast at the time.  Baby Kintyre was nominated for a Prix Italia International Broadcast Award in 2010.