Toronto Summer Music is presenting Missing, a Canadian chamber opera, in concert as part of the festival’s mainstage offerings. The performance takes place July 24.
Missing is a chamber opera that gives a voice to the voiceless, and in doing so, puts an important Canadian human rights issue into sharp focus: that of the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The work was created by Sahtu Dene and Métis playwright Marie Clements and JUNO Award-winning composer Brian Current, and the story revolves around two women: an unnamed Indigenous woman only known as “Native Girl” who disappears, and Ava, the non-Indigenous lawyer whose life is changed as she delves into the mystery.
It’s a journey of truth and healing that takes audiences from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to British Columbia’s Highway of Tears. Musically, it blends elements of Western opera with Indigenous language and storytelling, and is performed in both English and Gitxsan.
Performance Details: Personnel
The music will be performed by the CONTINUUM Ensemble: Leslie Newman, flute; Anthony Thompson, clarinet; Carol Fujino, violin; Paul Widner, cello; Gregory Oh, piano/electric piano; Ryan Scott, percussion; Michael Murphy, percussion. Tim Long conducts.
The cast (in order of vocal appearance):
- Ava: Caitlin Wood
- Native Girl: Melody Courage
- Jess: Andrea Ludwig
- Devon: Asitha Tennekoon
- Dr. Wilson: Marion Newman
- Angus: Evan Korbut
- Native Mother: Michelle Lafferty
Scenic and Projection Designer Andy Moro has created brand new projections for the concert performance.
Missing was co-commissioned and co-produced by Pacific Opera Victoria and City Opera Vancouver, and made its world première in Vancouver and Victoria in 2017.
Missing was created in collaboration with Indigenous women and communities as more than a simple performance. It’s about resistance and resilience, and remembrance of the women who’ve been lost.
LvT spoke to mezzo-soprano Marion Newman (Dr. Wilson), soprano Melody Courage (Native Girl), and conductor Timothy Long about the upcoming performance.
Interview: Marion Newman, Melody Courage & Timothy Long
In many ways, opera and the performing arts are probably an ideal way to not only keep the story alive, but continue to connect with more and more people.
“Music insists that you allow your emotions to get involved,” says Marion Newman. “Much harder to let go when you’re invested.”
Marion has been involved with Missing since before its premiere.
“I was invited by the people who were commissioning the work to be part of that process,” she explains. “I got to get involved from the start.” The auditioning process, as she describes it, involved try-out arias submitting composers had written. The names of the composers had been blacked out in the interests of fairness.
“I was part of the panel that decided which aria and why,” Newman says. “It happened to be Brian Current.”
Even earlier, her brother had seen draft versions of the libretto. Marion recommended Victoria-based Métis soprano Melody Courage for the key role of Native girl.
Conductor and pianist Tim Long is of Muscogee Creek and Choctaw descent from the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town in Oklahoma. He’s also Associate Professor of Opera, and Artistic and Music Director of Opera at the Eastman School of Music.
“They were searching for Indigenous singers,” he explains. “Opera America put them in touch with me. I gave them a list of names, and said, by the way I’m a conductor.”
The suggestion hit home, and he was invited to conduct.
“He understood the story so well,” Marion says. “He really understood why things needed to be timed in a certain way.”
Along with the usual technical aspects of timing such as taking a breath, with such an emotionally-charged work for the vocalists, it’s necessary to allow time both for gathering emotions as well.
“Lucky I’ve done a lot of opera,” Long says.
The Music
“I describe this as tonal,” Long says. “I would say it’s polytonal —post minimalist.” It’s not strict minimalism, as he notes.
“It’s written in an interesting way, because you can almost do it as movement,” Tim adds. “I think it’s pretty remarkable piece, especially in how Brian uses time.” As he describes it, the work begins in a fairly straightforward metre. Once the Native Girl sings, however, the pulse of the music changes.
“I think that’s one of the great hallmarks of the score.”
“I would also say that Brian put the language first,” Marion says. Current worked with a native speaker to make sure the rhythm and phrasing of the lines in Gitxsan was correct.
“He made sure none of it was too thickly orchestrated,” Newman adds. “I would say it’s quite tonal.”
That’s not to say it’s simplistic. “In fact, it’s very complex,” she says. “It took several performances, remountings, for it to become ‘easy’.”
For her, the music revolves around the concept. “He was really thinking about story first.” It’s music anyone, whether they consider themselves a fan of new music or not, could enjoy.
“The landscape sounds like British Columbia,” she says. “You can hear the wind, and the trees. The desolate feeling of being on that highway.”
The Impact
“We always did private performances for the families of victims,” Long says. “We have never gotten a comment that, oh my gosh, I’ve never been to opera, or new music.”
The emotional impact of the piece overrides the idea of experiencing the music as purely an art form. As he mentions, the music is atonal when it goes with what’s happening in the story. It emphasizes expression via the story.
While it’s a concert performance, and not staged per se, there will be projections and background videos that help tell the story. Andy Moro is creating new visuals for the concert version which will include surtitles, and a background screen for Koerner Hall.
Melody Courage is hoping the opera’s message will be felt. “I think, a better understanding, but also, they know this fact,” she explains. It’s one thing to read or watch a news story. It’s another matter to feel real empathy. “They know it as a fact, not as actual real people,” she adds.
“Just inviting them to be more compassionate to Indigenous communities who have gone through this,” she hopes. “To stop and take a minute to learn about this story.”
Once they’ve heard about it, what else can be done?
“Everyone is going to come in at their own level,” Newman says. Raising awareness is an important step, along with continuing to pressure politicians and other authorities to do what’s right — like searching landfills when required.
“We are people who should be on equal par in people’s hearts and minds,” she says. The end goal, of course, is to make the world a safer place for Indigenous women and girls. “I think Marie Clements did an amazing job,” she says of the librettist.
Audiences can’t help but react.
“Some people go in very guarded,” Newman says, “and they leave on our side, feeling like they now understand that their voice can make a difference too.”
As an American, Tim is hoping for raised awareness most of all. “We’re certainly behind Canada in terms of recognition of the past,” he says. “My hope is that people will simply see us.” Other than the odd TV show, First Nations are largely invisible to mainstream American society. “We can’t grow without facing ourselves.”
“I think it’s great that it’s finally coming out east,” adds Melody.
The more people who know the story, the more momentum builds for change.
“Beyond all of that, it’s an incredible piece of theatre,” Long says. “It’s a powerful, moving story that ends with hope, actually.” He notes the opera is available as a recording on the Bright Shiny Things label.
“This piece is really built on community to me,” Marion adds, “and each performance, it adds to the community.”
- Find tickets and show details for the Toronto Summer Music presentation of Missing: In Concert on July 24 [HERE].
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