Homesick and penniless in New York City in 1927, a young Russian immigrant decides to walk home by heading west. Her journey takes her across the United States, up through Canada and into Alaska.
This is the subject of the newest opera to hit the stage at The Banff Centre. Based on a true story, Lillian Alling shows twice at the Eric Harvey Theatre – Aug. 18 and 20.
The production was written for Vancouver Opera by John Estacio and John Murrell and first performed there in October, 2010. About two years prior, The Banff Centre joined in the production of the opera, said Kelly Robinson, director of theatre arts for the centre.
“It really seemed as though there was an opportunity for our two companies to work together to expand the amount of time they had on stage, doing rehearsals and pre-production in our theatre in Banff,” said Robinson. “That expanded the theatre technical side of things such that we could accomplish quite a bit more than we would have under the schedule in Vancouver.”
Both the original Vancouver production, and the current Banff production, were directed by Robinson.
“This is the third production that I’ve done with John (Murrell) and John (Estacio) and we all too rarely get the opportunity to continue a creative collaboration beyond one opportunity,” he explained.
“The opportunity to do three contemporary operas in a main-stage venue with the same creative team is really a huge advantage, because you develop a shorthand working with each other, you really understand the way to use the strength of each member to try to build something that goes beyond the sum of the parts, and I think that’s always the goal in the theatre.”
For the most part, this production has an all-new cast, he said.
“The cast is drawn from our opera theatre students, and this year the students come from as far away as Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States and of course across Canada,” said Robinson. “But we did ask and invite the lead of our Vancouver production, Judith Forst, to be a senior artist and mentor and to come and do her role, which she agreed to do.
“So we have a young and very talented cast, led by one of our great singing actresses.”
The opera is mostly in English, though also touches on many other languages.
“It’s a multilingual opera – we hear the immigrant dream expressed from several different cultures, and as she makes her way across North America, she runs into some of the other communities of expats and emigrants, one being a Norwegian community in North Dakota,” said Robinson.
“We get to hear a little of the various languages that make up the mosaic of North America and one of the astonishing achievements of the opera is through the layers of storytelling we get the sense of the dream of people who came to this wilderness a hundred years ago and the effort and ambition and the hopes and dreams that they applied to living in a new land. The music reflects that, the libretto reflects that in a poetic and very accessible way.”
To help audiences visualize the dramatic journey Lillian Alling undertakes, the production employs a variety of multimedia techniques.
“The scale of her journey is so extraordinary that really the only way to capture it is to find a kind of photographic and projected imagery of what she achieved,” said Robinson. “I think it works quite effectively.”
In addition to all the visuals and singing and dance, the opera is accompanied by a 63-member live orchestra.
“With these wonderful tunes it’s certainly a musical treat,” he said. “It’s quite a piece of grand opera, although it touches on us in modern times and it touches on our forbearers, so it feels like a very immediate, local story, but set in a very grand operatic tradition. It’s a terrific night out.”
Robinson encourages all to attend, young and old, and experience what the opera has to offer.
“We would always love to find and cultivate new audiences,” he said. “From children to grandparents, it’s a piece about family and redemption and is a very human story, so I encourage all to come out.”
