Reviews 2016
Reviews 2016
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music by Ramona Luengen, libretto by Ann Hodges, directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori
Tapestry Opera, St. David’s Anglican Church, 49 Donlands Ave., Toronto
November 16-20, 2016
“The gift of song, the gift of stories, the gift of love”
Tapestry Opera is presenting the Toronto premiere of Naomi’s Road by composer Ramona Luengen to a libretto by Ann Hodges. The opera for young people had its world premiere in Vancouver in 2005 and has since been seen in over 400 communities in BC, Albert and the US. Though Tapestry has never previously presented an opera it did not commission, Toronto audiences should be grateful that it has given the city a chance to experience this important work at a time when its subject matter seems more relevant than ever.
The opera is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by acclaimed author Joy Kogawa, her adaptation for young people from Obasan, her most famous novel. The opera begins with Naomi Nakane (Hiather Darnel-Kadonaga) playing the role of the narrator who introduces us to the time, place and characters we will see. Particularly important is that Naomi’s great love is stories while the great love of her brother Stephen (Sam Chung) is music. After this introduction we have a glimpse of Naomi and Stephen living happily with their Mother (Erica Iris) and Father (Sung Taek Chung) both outdoors shopping in 1940s Vancouver and at home. While Sam plays the piano, Mother tells Naomi her favourite story, the Japanese folktale of Momotarō. In this story an aged, childless couple is blessed when they discover a boy sent to them by heaven inside a peach. The story underscores how important children are to parents’ happiness.
This comfortable time is interrupted when Mother announces that she will have to visit her mother who is ill in Japan but that the children’s aunt Obasan (also Erica Iris) will come to take care of them. Soon Father says that the children will be going on holiday in the Rockies with Obasan while he stays in Vancouver. The children are thrilled with the idea and debate what they should take since they are allowed only two suitcases each. Naomi must take the new doll her parents gave her and Stephen must take the cardboard keyboard his father made so that he can practice without a real piano. Only when they are on the train does it occur to Stephen that they may not be going on holiday at all. He asks Obasan what is happening, but she will not say.
The answer is that Kogawa’s fictional family of Japanese-Canadians is being moved to an internment camp east of the Rockies as were all Japanese-Canadians after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 since they were regarded as “Enemy Aliens”. Some Japanese-Canadians were forcible “repatriated” to Japan. While many Canadians now know about how Japanese-Canadians were treated, few may know, as the opera makes clear, that the government kept restrictions on Japanese-Canadians in place until 1949, four years after World War II ended.
Since the opera looks at the situation from a child’s point of view, all Naomi and Stephen notice is that they and Obasan are ordered to do things without any reasons being given. While in the camp in BC, they too learn what may be happening when a Bully (Sung Taek Chung) and a girl named Mitzi (Erica Iris) taunt them for not being Canadian. When Naomi returns a lost doll to Mitzi, Mitzi changes her view toward Naomi and begins to look on her as a friend. When the Bully next taunts Naomi and Stephen, Mitzi stands with them against the Bully – a parable about how others can help wronged people by taking up their cause.
When Stephen and Naomi are told they have to move to another camp in Alberta, their thoughts about what to pack are much different. They see that what is most important are intangibles like stories, music and love. And, indeed, it is those intangibles that are embodied in this opera based on Kogawa’s novel.
Ann Hodges, who originally conceived and directed the work, has written an excellent libretto. Given that the opera was commissioned to be presented in schools, it captures the growing anxiety of children who are inexplicably told to move out of their house and leave their parents. It also successfully depicts how discovering the possible reasons for these actions in bits and pieces only increases their worry. How, the children wonder, as well they should, can children born in Canada be considered by the government as enemies? Why should anyone doubt, as the Bully does, that they are pleased when the war is over?
Ramona Luengen’s music is gratefully written for the voice. It is harmonic in the mode of Gian-Carlo Menotti or Vaughan Williams when accompanying scenes of harmony and discordant in the mode of Bernard Hermann when accompanying scenes of discord. Luengen has a natural gift for melody and you will likely find the final chorus happily lingering in your memory long after the opera has ended. Luengen’s choral writing is particularly fine and much in the British tradition with an a cappella passage early in the opera especially exquisite.
Though clearly intended as an ensemble work, the star of the opera turns out to be mezzo-soprano Erica Iris. She plays three very different roles that Luengen has distinguished by register. Iris sings the Mother in her middle register, Obasan in her lower register and Mitzi in her upper register. These transformations are immeasurable aided by Iris’s natural acting talent. It’s very hard to believe that the ebullient 10-year-old Mitzi is played by the same singer as the elderly Obasan. Besides this, Iris has a lush, full voice that she is able to colour to reflect nuances in the text such has Obasan’s internal effort at trying to keep the children in ignorance of the truth. When Obasan is finally compelled to tell the children what is happening, Iris gives a moving account in what is the longest aria in the opera.
Hiather Darnel-Kadonaga, an engaging performer, has a naturally bright soprano. She darkens her tone when she sings the mature Naomi at the beginning but lightens it again as the young Naomi. Sam Chung has a strong, rounded tenor that he uses to great effect as the indignant Stephen. The score fortunately allows him to show off his ring top notes late in the action.
Baritone Sung Taek Chung plays four roles. His voice sounds rather insecure in the lower register as the Father but gains in strength in the upper register as the Bully. His most memorable character, however, is the eccentric known as Rough Lock Bill who befriends the Nakane children. Then his voice achieves an admirable warmth that well conveys Bill’s kindness.
One surprise is the exceedingly clever set designed by Christine Reimer for the opera’s 2012-13 tour throughout BC. On entering St. David’s Anglican Church one sees a raised platform and two sets of folding screens. Knowing that this is a set meant for touring, you might assume that is all the set there is. How wrong you would be. Reimer’s screens hide display cases behind them for the Vancouver street scene as well as an interior wall to represent the the Nakanes’ home. A pair of parallel windows and Michelle Ramsay’s inventive light suggest the train journey through the Rockies. The reverse of the patterned screen shows a black-and-white prospect of the eastern side of the Rockies where the camp is located.
The direction by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, the first-ever Japanese-Canadian director of the opera, is taut and inventive. Despite the rapid succession of events, he keeps the focus clearly on the Nakane children and their reactions. Stephanie Chua provides the colourful, highly nuanced piano accompaniment.
Not long ago one might have said that Naomi’s Road was an important work because it made sure that a dark period of Canadian history would not be forgotten. Now, however, with xenophobia on the rise not just in the United States but in Europe, the opera has only gained in importance in exposing the irrationality of politicians who suggest that anyone who is not white is suspect or even dangerous. The figure of the Bully in the story embodies on a small scale the fearful ideas that sway governments and the people who elect them on a larger scale. Naomi’s Road may originally have been written for young audiences, but it is such a fine work that audiences of all ages will appreciate it not only for its music and performances but for its message that has now because all too urgent.
Note: Tapestry Opera has lined up guests to read after the one-hour-long opera performance:
Nov 16, 2016: Joy Kogawa reading from Naomi’s Road.
Nov 17, 2016: Alexandra Shimo reading from Invisible North: The Search for Answers on a Troubled Reserve.
Nov 19, 2016: Rui Umezawa reading from The Truth About Death and Dying.
Nov 20, 2016: Lynne Kutsukake reading from The Translation of Love.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Hiather Darnel-Kadonaga, Erica Iris as Mother, Sam Chung and Sung Taek Chung as father; Erica Iris as Obasan and Hiather Darnel-Kadonaga; Sam Chung and Sung Taek Chung as Father. ©2016 Dahlia Katz.
For tickets, visit https://tapestryopera.com.
2016-11-17
Naomi's Road