I’ve been looking forward to seeing Tapestry Opera’s opening 2016/17 production, Naomi’s Road, ever since I heard about it months ago. Running November 16 to 20 at St. David’s Anglican Church by Donlands station, the opera comes to Toronto from Vancouver Opera, and is an Ontario premiere.
Written in 2005 and based on an autobiographical children’s novel of the same name by Canadian author Joy Kogawa, Naomi’s Road presents an hour-long look at the trauma of the Japanese Canadian internment during the second World War, through the eyes of a young girl who is sent away with her aunt and brother to a camp in the BC interior. It’s a story that’s close to my own family history—and as Tapestry director Michael Mori mentioned on opening night, one that, with its themes of cultural conflict and fear politics, feels as relevant now as ever.
On opening night, that relevance was urgently heard and felt onstage. Much of the opera stayed true to the original material of Kogawa’s novel; though streamlined for the stage, the show nonetheless captured the essence of Kogawa’s story, and the polarities of hope and despair felt by the Japanese Canadian community during the war. Though technically a children’s opera, Ann Hodges’ libretto is equally engaging for an adult audience—given that the story is told from the point of view of a child protagonist, the simple language and storyline make powerful narrative sense.
Ramona Luengen’s score proved a powerful complement to the story. Ranging from narratively poignant dissonances to more structured songs bordering on the pop-music sound of musical theatre, the music felt like a natural addition to the narrative. Diegetic music in the show—children’s songs, folk tunes sung in Japanese, and even a cameo by the Canadian national anthem—provided memorable musical anchors for an audience of first-time listeners. Lyric soprano Hiather Karnel-Kadonaga shone in the title role, singing with impeccable clarity, and tenor Sam Chung, in the role of Naomi’s brother Stephen, matched her well, with a powerful emotive range. Baritone Sung Taek Chung and mezzo Erica Iris, both singing multiple roles, are to be applauded for their quick vocal and dramatic switches of character. The sets, taken from the original Vancouver production, added clever visual interest.
I wrote in the October issue of The WholeNote that I hoped this production would bring together a new type of community, during a time when community-building—especially across cultures—has felt especially urgent. The production, thus far, has succeeded. The church venue, which is home to St. Andrew’s, Toronto’s Japanese Canadian Anglican congregation, surprised opening night audiences with its beautiful acoustic—and the opera stage, built with the support of Tapestry’s production sponsor The Frank H. Hori Charitable Foundation, will remain at the venue for the church’s use, so that it can continue to build up its performing arts programming. The crowd—members of the congregation, and friends and colleagues of Kogawa’s who were first-time Tapestry audience members side-by-side with opera fans who had never before heard Japanese Canadian stories told live—was itself an encouraging sight.
In her book reading at the post-show reception on opening night, Joy Kogawa spoke about how this production grew out of her own involvement with her church community in Toronto. Kogawa already runs a monthly series at the church called We Should Know Each Other, about bringing together Japanese Canadian figures from across a still-dispersed community. “There were about 1100 Anglican Japanese Canadians in Vancouver,” Kogawa said. “They ordered us to disappear, and we did...and this church is the tail end of that story. It’s a miracle that this community exists at all. I asked them, who would you like to see? And they said, ‘we’d like to see other Japanese Canadians.’ I thought that if this opera comes, then [Japanese Canadians] will come too. So that’s why it’s here.”
Get to know this story, and the people behind it. It’s a socially and politically urgent production, with music that does it justice—and with a sense of community-building that embodies the hope Kogawa has tried to bring into the world.
Tapestry Opera’s production of Naomi’s Road opened on November 16 (with preview performances at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Momiji Health Care Society), and runs until Sunday, November 20. For details on the show, visit our listings or www.tapestryopera.com.
Sara Constant is a Toronto-based flutist and musicologist, and is digital media editor at The WholeNote. She can be reached at editorial@thewholenote.com.
