Local history fuels world premiere at McCaw Hall

Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Adam Lau and Hae Ji Chang play the Kobayashi family who is forcibly removed and incarcerated during World War II. In reality, this happened to more than 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans during the 1940s.  Brandon Patoc photo

When Seattle Opera’s brand-new opera, An American Dream, premieres this August, Japanese Americans will see the story of their community coming to life onstage.

Locally sourced personal histories such as the wartime incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom were from the Seattle area, have provided inspiration for this world premiere. Composed by Jack Perla with libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, An American Dream is a deeply human and hauntingly relevant work that speaks to the universal immigrant experience. In this story, the fate of two families unexpectedly becomes bound together following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the heartbreak of World War II. When the Kobayashi family (Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Adam Lau, and Hae Ji Chang) is forced to leave their home on an island in Puget Sound, Eva (D’Ana Lombard), a German Jew and her husband, Jim (Morgan Smith), an American veteran, move in. As Eva awaits news from family in Germany, she slowly pieces together the history of her new home.

The evening begins with a dramatic pre-performance experience in the McCaw Hall lobby beginning an hour before curtain. Viewers will be able to see, hear, and experience what their region was like during World War II through documentaries, exhibits, and personal testimonies from people who were affected by the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Seattle Opera in the community: Nina Yoshida Nelsen who plays the mother in An American Dream, performed for residents at Nikkei Concerns, where many of the residents were personally affected by the mass incarceration and removal of Japanese Americans. This was especially meaningful for Nelsen, a yonsei or fourth-generation Japanese American whose grandmother, a Seattle native, was also incarcerated during the war. 

During the opera, innovative staging and seating will bring the audience even closer to the action onstage. Following the performance, viewers are invited to stay for a 30-minute post-show discussion featuring members of the creative team, artists and former incarcerees. 

An American Dream Community Events:
Community Preview at Wing Luke Museum 
6:30 p.m. on June 30, 2015 
Free preview featuring Community Programs Manager Nick Malinowski, librettist Jessica Murphy Moo and a Community Partner representing the Japanese American community. 
Tickets & Information:
www.wingluke.org

Preview Performance at Bainbridge Performing Arts 
7:30 p.m. on August 13, 2015 
Final dress rehearsal open to the public featuring the cast and orchestra. 
Tickets by donation
More Information:
www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org

Events related to An American Dream received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Fund. 

The creative duo behind An American Dream: Jack Perla, composer with Jessica Murphy Moo, librettist.
Brandon Patoc photo 

Performances: 

7 p.m., Friday, August 21

2 p.m. Sunday, August 23

Approximate Running Time: 2 hours (including a pre-performance event and a post-performance discussion). 

In English with English captions
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall

Performance Schedule:
7:00-8:00 p.m. (1:30-2:30 p.m. Sunday) Pre-show activities including documentaries, presentations with people who lived in our region during WWII, and historical exhibits
8:00 p.m. (2:30 p.m. Sunday) Performance begins
9:30 p.m. (4:00 p.m. Sunday) Post-performance audience and artist discussion

Production sponsor: True-Brown Foundation

An American Dream Community Partners:

Holocaust Center for Humanity, Bainbridge Island Historical Museum, Densho, Japanese American Citizens League–Seattle, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), Wing Luke Museum of the Asia Pacific Experience and Japanese American National Museum.

City of Seattle names street after Speight Jenkins

The City of Seattle recognized Speight, the beloved General Director of Seattle Opera from 1983 to 2014, by naming a street after him!

Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen sponsored this honorary street name designation, which was approved unanimously by the council in December. Rasmussen spoke on behalf of the City Council: “The City is grateful for Speight’s devotion to Seattle Opera and to advancing opera as a welcoming art form for all. This honorary street designation will help ensure his legacy is remembered for generations to come.”

Speight Jenkins with Seattle Opera Board President Maryanne Tagney and Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

“Speight Jenkins Way” is a one-way northbound stretch of Fourth Avenue North, running between Republican Street and Mercer Street. KCTS is on the east, and the Mercer Arena to the west. Street signs at both corners honor Jenkins, the visionary arts leader who helped Seattle Opera achieve international acclaim and played a guiding role in the creation of nearby McCaw Hall.

Speight Jenkins

A legend in the world of opera, Speight retired last summer after three decades of devotion to Seattle Opera, where he presented more than 1,200 individual performances of 92 opera productions. Since then he has taught a class on opera at Stanford University, been made a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France, and won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Opera Awards in London. Seattle Opera audiences also caught a glimpse of him onstage at opening night of Ariadne auf Naxos, where he played the role of the wealthy host; the spotlight hit him as Zerbinetta came over to tease him during her big show-stopper aria!

Speight Jenkins unveils the sign at the corner of Republican St. and Speight Jenkins Way.

A cheering crowd of family, friends, opera-lovers, and former colleagues cheered the unveiling of the new signs.

Speight with Aidan Lang, his successor as General Director of Seattle Opera

Photos by Alan Alabastro

Youth Opera Chorus Spotlight: Ava Messinger

Ava Messinger sings in Seattle Opera's Youth Opera Chorus

Ava Messinger was only 7 when she first sang on stage. She played the role of Molly, one of the featured orphans in Driftwood Players' production of Annie. But while Messinger remembers being scared and nervous, it's the excitement and magic of being in a show that stuck with her.

"It was actually double-cast: there were two Annies and two Mollys. My Annie was really nice, and every day at rehearsal, she greeted me with a hug," Messinger said. "Since I was only 7, she was like a giant to me!"

Since that first show, Messinger, now a 12-year-old 6th-grader at Terrace Park elementary in Edmonds, has numerous credits on her theater resume, including Hello, Dolly; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; singing with Seattle Girls' Choir. As a member of Seattle Opera's Youth Opera Chorus, she's also sung on the McCaw Hall stage, performing in such productions as La bohème, the Ring and Tosca.

"One of the biggest differences between opera and musical theater is that in opera, it's just so much bigger. Even if you don't have a huge role, it's still amazing to hear all of those voices around you. It's very loud, of course!"

Messinger became interested in opera in 2012 after she participated in a one-week camp led by Barbara Lynne Jamison (recently appointed Seattle Opera's new Director of Education & Community Engagement; formerly the company's Youth Programs Manager). Getting to sing with the older girls in a camp for youth in fourth grade through high school made a big impression on both Ava, as well as her parents.    

"We were thrilled to find this camp for our daughter, and impressed with everything about the way it was run, as well as with the quality of the final performance," said Mike Messinger, Ava's dad. "My daughter found her niche with other great, accepting and passionate kids." 

Greer Grimsley (Scarpia) and Ava (playing the role of a choir child) backstage at McCaw Hall for Seattle Opera's January 2015 production of Puccini's Tosca. 

Next summer, Ava participated in a two-week camp at Seattle Opera. These experiences led to her involvement in the Youth Opera Chorus and performing in several mainstage performances including Tosca last January.   

"I really like Scarpia (the villain character in Tosca)," she said. "He’s amazing."

Unlike her first camp experiences at Seattle Opera, in Tosca, Ava was the older, more experienced chorister. It was cool getting to watch her less-experienced peers grow in confidence throughout the rehearsal process and performances. By the end of the show, they had all become good friends. 

Operas are a blast to be in, and they're also fun to watch, according to Ava. 

"Sure, we have our really long arias, like when Sigmund meets Brünnhilde (in Wagner's Ring) and it seems like it's two hours long! But most of the time, opera is really interesting, kind of like reading a good book."

Ava sings a solo as an "Urchin" La bohème (2013). Alan Alabastro photo

Ava during a costume fitting for her character as an "Urchin" in La bohème (2013).

Mike said watching Ava blossom through the arts has been fascinating and rewarding to watch, from her first performance in Annie ("That was my proudest parental moment!") to now, where the 6th-grader also reads music and is passionate about learning and practicing music. 

Even though Ava wants to be a lawyer rather than a performer, these experiences are invaluable, Mike says. 

The young singer and aspiring lawyer agrees.  

"In a way, being a lawyer is kind of like performing," Ava said. "You have to understand people's motivations and desires. You have to persevere and use good communication skills. I think what I've done through singing will help me move toward that."

For more information about Youth Opera Chorus and opera camps for summer, click here.

Ava backstage with buddies, her fellow "Nibelungs," in Das Rheingold (2013).