Radio interview with Nina Yoshida Nelsen

Mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen sings the role of Hiroko Kobayashi in An American Dream, a new opera by Jack Perla with libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo. Set on a Puget Sound island during WWII, the opera intertwines the stories of a local Japanese-American family and the couple who purchase their farm – a returning American soldier and his German Jewish wife.

Nina spoke with Marta Zekan of KING FM's Art Channel about the new opera and its parallels with her own family history; one of her arias is in fact based on her own grandmother’s reminiscences of what it was like to be incarcerated during World War II. 

Seattle Opera presents An American Dream August 21 and 23 at McCaw Hall.

Follow #SOAmericanDream on Twitter and Facebook and listen to excerpts from the opera on Soundcloud.