Performance Dates

Friday, March 10, 2023 @ 8 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Saturday, March 11, 2023 @ 8 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, March 12, 2023 @ 4 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

In English and Gitxsan (with English and Gitxsan supertitles)

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 @ 7 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre – Free Private Performance for Survivors & Families of MMIWG
Anchorage Opera wishes to honor victims of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis in Alaska by offering a free, private performance of the US premiere of Missing for families and survivors of MMIWG. Crisis response counselors, and a grief counselor for those that need assistance or support will be on-site.

ALL Ticket holders: Anchorage Opera wants to learn more about your experience so we can serve our community better. Your opinion matters and helps shape our future work. Please share your thoughts. We’re listening… TAKE SURVEY
Submit the Missing survey by March 31, 2023 to be entered to WIN two (2) tickets to Bizet’s Carmen (May 5, 6 & 7) at the PAC. You may remain anonymous, but if you’d like to be entered in a drawing please provide your contact information.

Dress Rehearsal Photo Gallery

Dress Rehearsal (3/5/23) beautifully captured by Kathleen Behnke

Kate Bass – “Ava”, Melody Courage – “Native Girl”, Marion Newman – “Dr. Wilson”, Michelle Lafferty – “Native Mother”, Evan Korbut – “Angus Wilds”, Luke Honeck – “Devon”, Camille Sherman – “Jess”, Taylor Feightner – Supernumerary

Pre/Post Opera Activities

To raise awareness of the MMIWG tragedy and help with healing our community, Voth Hall, off the Discovery Theatre lobby, served as a space for opera attendees to view exhibits and informational tables from Anchorage Opera’s partners for Missing.

Information tables from Southcentral Foundation, Knik Tribal Consortium, AWAIC, Choosing Our Roots, and the MMIWG2s Alaska Working Group connected attendees with those working to end the crisis.

Prior to the premiere of Missing, Anchorage Opera (AO) reached out to the Alaska Native artists’ community to submit artwork for incorporation into the design of the scenery and lighted projections, in order to give representation to the culture and peoples of the land on which this production was presented. AO hoped to raise awareness of the MMIWG tragedy and help with healing by presenting this opera. AO believes the incorporation of projections of artwork from the Alaska Native community helped achieve those goals in a meaningful way. One artist, Benjamin Schleifman, was selected. AO honored all the artists’ submissions by projecting them in Voth Hall during all performances. Thank you for your artistry, Fred Anderson, Sharon Carter, Rhonda Shelford Jansen, Mary Kelsay, Mary Kirisimasi, Peter Lind, Jr., Zachariah Martin, Robin Summers Murphy, and Helen M. Setuk. Mary Kelsay‘s Red Dress Collection was on display and her “For Our Sisters” video projected on the exhibit hall wall.

Benjamin Scheifman is Ishkitaan from the Taku River in Juneau, Alaska. His formline sparrow art was animated and projected onto the set of Missing.

Alaska Native Dance Groups Unangam Taligisniikangis (Anchorage Unangax̂ Dancers), Lower Yukon Yup’ik Dancers, and Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim Ts’myen Dancers began the performances.

                                                                                                   Unangam Taligisniikangis (Anchorage Unangax̂ Dancers)

Post-performance Talking Circles connected the audience with Alaska Native culture and with the cast, and artistic team of Missing and with the composer, Brian Current (on March 8).

Seat Cards Project

Seat cards with information, statistics, poems and MMIP stories set the stage for the opera before it began, personalizing it, and ‘bringing it home’ for all Alaskans. Attendees were invited to share theirs with the person next to them and to take theirs home.

On March 12, Ashley Johnson-Barr Day in Alaska, seat cards were purple, Ashley’s favorite color, and her family was in the audience. Airfare provided by Missing sponsor Alaska Airlines. Accommodations and scheduling of their attendance provided by our partners in the MMIWG2S Alaska Working Group.

Partners

Anchorage Opera gratefully acknowledges our partners for their invaluable assistance with this USA premiere production of Missing, and with the projects surrounding it designed to raise awareness of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).
Alaska Native Heritage Center, Native Movement, Data for Indigenous Justice, Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, Alaska Native Justice Center, Native Peoples Action, Anchorage Museum and Alaska Humanities Forum

  

 

Sponsors

                

        

This production of Missing received funding from OPERA America‘s Next Stage program,
supported by Gene Kaufman, Terry Eder-Kaufman, and New Vision for NYC Opera, with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Quyana Initiative: a Commitment to Decolonization and Indigenization, received funding from a Civic Practice Grant from OPERA America’s Opera Fund. The company debut of Rhiana Yazzie was partially supported by OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors, generously funded by the Marineau Family Foundation. Anchorage Opera is a proud member of OPERA America. 

Anchorage Opera gratefully acknowledges our sponsors, CIRISealaska, Southcentral Foundation, Alaska Airlines, First National Bank Alaska, Anchorage East Rotary, the National Endowment for the Arts and OPERA America  for their support of this USA premiere production of Missing,

Missing in reviews

“The power of Missing’s libretto is magnified by the equally spare music of composer Brian Current, whose sublime score – conducted here by Timothy Long – soars and plummets in unison with the fierce complexity of emotions that are brought to bear through the telling of this tragic tale. – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note

“…Missing is a piece that at once fills your heart and tugs it down through your gut. It brings a traditionally European art form to a major issue facing indigenous communities by drawing upon the lived experiences of communities and the knowledge of indigenous language holders and storytellers of all mediums.” – Shayli Robinson, Showbill

“…The creators of Missing have forged a powerful story that tackles all the issues it should, head-on and unflinchingly. Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, presented by Vancouver Opera this past spring, deals with similarly devastating losses. But Missing starts where the Heggie piece leaves off, going one step further to the healing and reconciliation that can come after bereavement. It needs to be seen and heard.” – Robert Jordan, Opera Canada

“…this opera is a look at what decolonization might look like. So while the subject matter is very serious and about grave injustice and tragedy, I find it very hopeful. because it’s about the spirit finding home, it’s about continuance, it’s about the collision of culture.” – Peter Hinton interview, The Globe and Mail

“Missing eschews familiar operatic conventions such as showy arias, huge choruses and a linear plot. It is a relentlessly probing meditation on how the murders and unexplained disappearances…affect everyone in the victims’ circles of life. In Métis-Dene writer/actor Marie Clements’ unconventional libretto, a succession of seemingly unrelated scenes tumble along after each other, but then gradually and inevitably begin to cohere, deeply and powerfully, to reveal an inner logic…Events unfolded in a not always linear and logical way and with a fascinating blend of English and Gitxsan… Brian Current’s minimalist score underpinned this dreamy essence admirably…” Robert Jordan, Opera Canada

“…Missing breaks with much classical opera not only in its bold subject matter – racism against native peoples as well as the ongoing tragedy of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women – but also its sparse, eloquent storytelling, complemented by a minimalist set design, that delves into magic realism and metaphor as a means to express pain and, possibly, redemption.” – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note 

‘Power of opera gives story of missing Indigenous women emotional depth’ …a gripping, poetic story with powerful scenes and shifting timelines…Current’s score, under the direction of Timothy Long, provided dramatic depth — shifting from minimalist and traditional classical music to jazz-like sections and using heavy percussive elements. The small orchestra even tapped and clapped some sections, while others were sung a capella.” – Sarah Petrescu, Times Colonist

…the simple force of the tragedy the Indigenous community continues to face makes [Missing] a mustsee,” Robin Miller, Opera Canada

“Missing is an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking work, and a milestone for the opera world. It has taken a painful and horrifying topic and rendered it into accessible art. Ultimately, its message is a universal one: open our eyes and hearts to each other’s pain. By doing so, humanity has a chance for healing and redemption. Missing begins this healing journey in a magnificent mélange of singing, acting and music that, one hopes, will be seen by audiences across Canada and the world.” – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note 

About the Opera

The story we need to tell; the women we must remember

Marie Clements (Librettist)
Brian Current (Composer)

Missing, by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current, gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A poetic expression of loss, hope and the spirit finding home. Although the action of Missing takes place in the stark reality of a current epidemic, “it also takes place in the realm of dreams, the land of myth and the caverns of the unconscious. At its core is something very real: how our culture stereotypes Indigenous women and puts them in constant danger of rape or worse” – The Straight, A. Varty. The USA premiere presentation of Missing by Anchorage Opera, Indigenous led and cast, speaks to the tragic situation in Alaska where high violence rates against Alaska Native women has created a culture in which they feel invisible and disposable.

          “Missing is an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking work, and a milestone for the opera world. It has taken a painful and horrifying topic and rendered it into accessible art. Ultimately, its message is a universal one: open our eyes and hearts to each other’s pain. By doing so, humanity has a chance for healing and redemption. Missing begins this healing journey in a magnificent mélange of singing, acting and music that, one hopes, will be seen by audiences across Canada and the world.” – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note

Anchorage Opera is proud to present the USA premiere production of Missing in March 2023. Originally co-commissioned and co-produced by Pacific Opera Victoria and City Opera Vancouver, the opera, developed over two and a half years, had its world première in Vancouver and Victoria in November 2017.

 

Cast

Production Team


Melody Courage (of Dene, Cree & Chipewyan descent) – Native Girl


Marion Newman (Kwagiulth & Stó:lo First Nations) – Dr. Wilson


Luke HoneckDevon


Kate Bass Ava


Michelle Lafferty
(First Nations – the Northwest Territories) – Native Mother


Evan Korbut (Anishinaabe) – Angus Wilde / Native Student


Timothy Long (of Muscogee, Thlopthlocco, and Choctaw descent) – Conductor


Scott HoldredgeSet & Projections Designer


Jenny Choo KirbyRehearsal Accompanist/Pianist


Danielle JagelskiAssistant Conductor


Vincent Gogag (G_awagani, Gitksan, hereditary chief) – Gitksan language translator/diction coach


Helen MullerStage Manager

Taylor FeightnerAssistant Stage Manager


Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo Nation citizen) – Stage Director


Cedar CussinsLighting Designer

 
Brighton CogginsCostume Designer

Rochelle Smallwood – Cultural Consultant – Wardrobe & Design


Elle Janecek Hair/Makeup Designer & Costume Supervisor


Steven Alvarez (Mescalero Apache, Yaqui and Upper Tanana Athabascan) – Cultural Liaison/Consultant

Dustin NewmanNative Art Consultant

About the Librettist

Marie Clements (Librettist) is an award-winning writer, director and producer who has worked to ignite her brand of independent story-making to a variety of mediums including film, TV, radio, new media and live performance.

Her latest project, feature drama Red Snow has been nominated for 10 Leo Awards, and her feature music documentary The Road Forward, produced by the NFB, premiered at Hot Docs, opened the 2017 DOXA Documentary Film Festival, and closed the  2018 Imaginative Film Festival, receiving five Leo Awards including Best Production, Best Director, and Best Screenwriter.

The Road Forward has screened at over 300 venues in North America and also received a Best Director Award at the North American Indian Festival in San Francisco, as well as a Writer’s Guild Nomination for Best Documentary Screenplay in 2018, the WFF Women on Top Award and the WITV Spotlight Impact Award 2018.

Her documentary Looking at Edward Curtis premiered at DOXA,  The Yorkton Film Festival, and on the Knowledge Network. Her multi- award winning films have screened at Cannes, TIFF, MOMA, VIFF, Whistler Film Festival, American Indian Film Festival and ImagineNATIVE Film Festival.

Her fifteen plays have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and international work, garnering numerous awards and publications including the 2004 Canada-Japan Literary Award, and two prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award nominations. 

Clement is working on a tv miniseries with Grana Productions and CBC titled Bone of Crows and a limited tv series with Good Films titled Leaves Awaken. Her Unnatural and Accidental Women opened the first Indigenous Theatre  Season at The National Arts Centre in September 2019.

Marie is President of her media company MCM and Artistic Director of red diva projects. Marie is an alumna of Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) in Banff.

“In the hands of librettist Marie Clements … words become as powerful as arrows, each one piercing deep-seated emotions, from guilt, sorrow and enlightenment among white viewers to – for Indigenous members of the audience – grief and a sense of vindication from having the suffering of one’s community acknowledged and honoured in a public setting…

Missing is an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking work, and a milestone for the opera world. It has taken a painful and horrifying topic and rendered it into accessible art. Ultimately, its message is a universal one: open our eyes and hearts to each other’s pain. By doing so, humanity has a chance for healing and redemption. Missing begins this healing journey in a magnificent mélange of singing, acting and music that, one hopes, will be seen by audiences across Canada and the world.” – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note. Review of Missing, City Opera Vancouver / Pacific Opera Victoria, 2017.

Learn more about Marie Clements>>>

About the Composer

Brian Current (Composer) studied music at McGill University and UC Berkeley. His music, lauded and broadcast in over 35 countries, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music (USA), the Italian Premio Fedora for Chamber Opera, the Azrieli Commissioning Prize, the Grand Prize in the CBC National Competition for Young Composers and The Selected Work (under 30) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. His opera Airline Icarus won the 2015 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year.

Brian’s pieces have been programmed by all major symphony orchestras in Canada and by dozens of professional orchestras, ensembles and opera companies world-wide. HIs work includes commissions by the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (as winner of the Azrieli Prize), Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Soundstreams Canada, Gryphon Trio, St. Lawrence String Quartet, and others.

Current is also an in-demand guest conductor and regularly leads orchestral programs of contemporary music. He has championed nearly one hundred works by Canadian composers. Brian has been the main conductor of the Continuum Ensemble since 2011 and has guest conducted with symphony orchestras and ensembles in Canada, the USA and Italy. Starting in 2019-2020 he is co-director of New Music Concerts (NMC) of Toronto. Since 2007 Dr. Current has been director of the New Music Ensemble of the Glenn School at The Royal Conservatory.

“The power of Missing’s libretto is magnified by the equally spare music of … composer Brian Current, whose sublime score – conducted here by Timothy Long – soars and plummets in unison with the fierce complexity of emotions that are brought to bear through the telling of this tragic tale.” – Roberta Staley, The Whole Note. Review of Missing, City Opera Vancouver / Pacific Opera Victoria, 2017.

Learn more about Brian Current>>>

Synopsis

Ava, a young white woman, is thrown from her car in a crash and badly injured. She sees another body – a young native girl – lying on the ground. Their eyes meet.

Some time after the accident, Ava returns to class at law school with her friend Jess and ex-boyfriend Devon. A guest lecturer, Dr. Wilson, addresses the class about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Jess argues with Dr. Wilson and feels betrayed when Ava won’t support her. The friendship is shattered.

We see a moment between the Native Mother and her adult son, at their cabin; a flashback shows him as a teenager playing with his much younger sister.

Ava sees images of the Native Girl in the store windows. She unexpectedly meets Devon and their love for each other is renewed. Ava starts to learn the Gitxsan language from Dr. Wilson.

In Ava and Devon’s home, Ava contemplates her new pregnancy and suddenly sees the Native Girl in the mirror. Ava is spooked, but when the Native Girl disappears, Ava calls her: ‘Don’t go, I’m sorry.’ They speak.

Ava and Devon celebrate marriage with a traditional Gitxsan ceremony.

At the cabin, the Native Mother mourns her lost daughter.

Ava is distressed by her baby’s constant crying. Dr. Wilson and Ava talk about the baby’s passage from one world to another. The Native Girl is attacked in the woods and Ava experiences this as a nightmare. She awakens, terrified, and Devon comforts her.

Devon goes back to sleep. Ava walks the baby up and down. The Native Girl appears, and Ava allows her to hold her baby daughter. Ava and the Native Girl sing to the baby, echoing the Native Mother’s song to her lost girl. Their worlds connect.

The Native Mother calls her daughter home.

Ava and the Native Girl have found each other: each sees the other in herself and herself in the other. The Native Girl’s spirit can fly away. At the cabin, the Native Mother and her son mourn the death of their daughter and sister.

Free Pre-Opera Talks

Plan to join us one hour before each performance of Missing in the Voth Hall to learn the history and fascinating insights into this poignant and compelling opera.

Friday, Mar 10 @ 7:00 PM
Saturday, Mar 11 @ 7:00 PM
Sunday, Mar 12 @ 3:00 PM