Vancouver Opera: Can Cultures Merge?
- Whenever did cultures stop merging?

NOVEMBER. 8, 7:30-9:30 PM
Opera Speaks @ VPL:  "Can Cultures Merge?"
Alice MacKay Room, Vancouver Public Library
A free public forum

Opera is an art form that has borrowed from many cultures near and far.  There is a tradition of "East meets West," demonstrated as Puccini's Turandot is set in China, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers is set in Ceylon, and Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah is set in Gaza.  And even Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado alludes to "something Japanese" but is really a parody of English custom and pretension.

It was only a matter of time that the Vancouver Opera should set one of Europe's most famous operas smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Northwest First Nations culture.

Last week, magnificently costumed opera singers performed two excerpts from Mozart's Magic Flute opera, but they were dressed in Northwest coast First Nations inspired designs.  The young male bird catcher character of Papageno has now become himself a bird - a hummingbird to be precise.  The Queen of the Night has become the mythic wild woman of the woods - T'sonokwa.

Fantastic?  Definitely.  Absurd?  Maybe.  Cultural appropriation?  Debatable...

Chris Creighton Kelly, noted artist and cultural critic, moderated the discussion which featured panelists such as anthropologist Wade Davis, Magic Flute stage director Robert McQueen, First Nations writer and filmmaker Loretta Todd, and Marcia Crosby, professor of First Nations Studies at Malaspina University-College. 

The Vancouver Opera website states the questions:

The evening began slowly as each of the panelists explored the reasons and questions to why they were on the panel.  McQueen explained how the Vancouver Opera set about to invite and find collaborating First Nations artists to work with them in creating an "impossible idea."  By relocating the Magic Flute, which was originally set in Egypt and full of Masonic ritual, to the Pacific Northwest - it had to be adapted to fit First Nations culture and mythology.  First Nations writer/filmmaker Loretta Todd and professor Marcia Crosby, felt it was also necessary to address how culturally sensitive or appropriate it was to adopt First Nations culture.  On the other hand, they also pointed out that they didn't know that much about opera, and neither admitted anthropologist Wade Davis. 

But did this matter?  If more people become interested in opera, or become more interested in exploring First Nations culture and stories, then this is a good thing.  Davis explained that our world is losing cultures on an astonishing rate.  Cultural diversity is important for us to see things and issues from different perspectives. There used to be 500 Aboriginal Nations in North America before the arrival of Europeans, many have disappeared or become assimilated.

Crosby asked the question "When did cultures stop merging, so that we had to ask the question 'Can cultures merge?'" This raised an important point, because I personally feel that culture is like a river.  We don't see where it starts high in the mountains... and it never is the same when we walk through it again (to paraphrase Plato or Heraclitus) and it ends in the large globally shared oceans.

The evening really picked up when the audience challenged the panelists with questions and statements.  Issues addressed were appropriation of culture and also ethnic minority issues in a white dominated culture.  Creighton-Kelly summed it up aptly when he said we are just beginning to scratch the surface before he wrapped up the evening.

I was one of the people who spoke to the panel, and I was surprised at the clapping for the recognition of the name "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" when Vancouver Opera marketing and development officer Doug Tuck introduced me to the audience as he handed me the microphone.  But then "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" is getting more well known as a blending of Scottish and Chinese traditions and cultures.

"I love what the Vancouver Opera is doing," I stated to the audience, and spoke of the impact that the Vancouver Opera touring production "Naomi's Road" had on sharing the Japanese Canadian internment experience with thousands of school children.  "It is a sharing of Japanese Canadian culture with White mainstream culture, so yes... cultures can merge. Author Joy Kogawa told me that in Tofino, people in the audience were crying.  Japanese Canadians were very touched to see their culture portrayed on stage.

"The real benefit is that we are talking together in forums like this.  We can share and listen to each other's stories, and our cultures are merging now.  And it will continue. 

"I really want to know how the school children across BC are receiving the touring version of Magic Flute today in the schools."

Vancouver Opera general director James Wright responded by saying that while it is still early, the students at the schools are responding well, and are interested in learning about First Nations culture - some are not.  I expect that many First Nations students will take pride in seeing their culture and traditions represented.  At the same time, I expect there to be critics of cultural mis-appropriation.  In the end... discussion is good.  Sharing is good.  More people witnessing and experiencing these events and issues is good. And in the end, First Nations culture is recognized as an integral part of Vancouver and BC culture and history.

Next Opera Speaks is Wednesday Night at Vancouver Public Library.
  Opera Speaks @ VPL: “Power and its Abuses”
A free public forum about Verdi's "McBeth"

CBC Radio’s Mark Forsythe as he moderates a discussion about the nature of political power and its abuse, in both Shakespeare’s day and in our contemporary society.  Panelists include UBC global issues expert Michael Byers, SFU criminologist Ehor Boyanowski and SFU Shakespeare scholar Paul Budra.

November 15, 2006 7:30pm
Alice Mackay Room
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch