| Pauline | |
|---|---|
| Chamber opera by Tobin Stokes | |
 Pauline Johnson, on whose life the opera is based | |
| Librettist | Margaret Atwood |
| Premiere | |
Pauline is a chamber opera in two acts composed by Tobin Stokes to a libretto by Margaret Atwood. Commissioned by City Opera Vancouver, the opera is set in Vancouver in March 1913 during the final days in the life of the Canadian writer and performer Pauline Johnson. It premiered on 23 May 2014 at Vancouver's York Theatre.
Poul Ruders's 2000 opera The Handmaid's Tale had a libretto by Paul Bentley based on Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale. However, Pauline marked the Canadian poet, novelist, and literary critic's debut as an opera librettist in her own right. The history of the Pauline libretto began in 1999 when Atwood wrote it as a commission from the Canadian Opera Company for a new opera to be composed by Randolph Peters, but when the composer pulled out, the project was shelved. In 2006 Charles Barber, the Artistic Director of the newly founded chamber opera company City Opera of Vancouver, approached her to write a libretto for a new opera with a signature role for the distinguished British Columbian mezzo-soprano Judith Forst. Atwood suggested using the libretto she had written for the Canadian Opera Company but pared down to make the work suitable for performance as a chamber opera. Christos Hatzis was to be the composer and the opera was due to premiere in 2010 at Vancouver's historic Pantages Theatre. [1] [2]
As Atwood continued the process of revising the libretto, City Opera of Vancouver was unable to reach an agreement with Hatzis and the premiere was postponed. A new composer, Tobin Stokes, was chosen in 2012. By that time, the Pantages Theatre had been demolished, and Forst's commitments meant that she could no longer take on the title role. Following auditions in March 2013, Rose-Ellen Nichols was chosen to create the role of Pauline. [3] [4] The opera with the preliminary piano/vocal score was workshopped before invited audiences in September, October and November 2013. Both Atwood and Stokes continued revising the work through December of that year with the final orchestration completed by April 2014, shortly before rehearsals began. [5] The opera premiered on 23 May 2014 at the York Theatre in Vancouver, conducted by Charles Barber, directed by Norman Armour, and produced by Nora Kelly and Janet Lea. [6] On the opening night the performance began nearly two hours late following a power outage in Vancouver's East Side. The audience, which included Margaret Atwood, Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson, Squamish Elder Sam George, and Mohawk poet Janet Marie Rogers, waited outside the 371-seat theatre while emergency generators were brought in. [7] [8] Pauline ran for four more sold-out performances, closing on 31 May 2014. At the invitation of the literary festival Québec en toutes lettres, the work was performed in concert version at Le Grand Theatre du Québec on 16 October 2015. It featured the original cast, and a Québec orchestra. [9]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 23 May 2014 (Conductor: Charles Barber) [10] |
|---|---|---|
| Pauline Johnson | mezzo-soprano | Rose-Ellen Nichols |
| Eva Johnson (Pauline's sister) | soprano | Sarah Vardy |
| Charles Drayton (Pauline's fiance) / Pauline's manager / Pauline's doctor | tenor | Adam Fisher |
| Grandfather Smoke (Pauline's grandfather) | bass | John Minágro |
| Pauline's nurse /Society woman 3 | mezzo-soprano | Cathleen Gingrich |
| Owen Smiley (Pauline's stage partner) / Rev. Chisholme | baritone | Ed Moran |
| Lady 1 / Society woman 2 | soprano | Diane Speirs |
| Lady 2 / Society woman 2 | soprano | Eleonora Higginson |
The opera requires eight singers taking a total of 14 roles, supported by seven players in the pit. It is scored for cello, viola, violin, keyboard, bassoon, clarinet and bass clarinet (doubled), and flute and alto flute (doubled). [10]
The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy The Barber of Seville (1775). The première of Rossini's opera took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli.
Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.
The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which has overthrown the United States government. Offred is the central character and narrator and one of the "handmaids", women who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "commanders", the ruling class in Gilead.
Emily Pauline Johnson, also known by her Mohawk stage name Tekahionwake, was a Canadian poet, author, and performer who was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her father was a hereditary Mohawk chief of mixed ancestry and her mother was an English immigrant.
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Tobin David Stokes is a Canadian composer and theatre creator, notable for his work in opera, theatre, choral music and television. His works have been performed by New York City Opera, Long Beach Opera, City Opera of Vancouver, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony. He also composes for television, including scores for documentaries by the BBC, ABC, and PBS.
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As an old form of art in a new country, opera came to Canada relatively late. Although the first composition can be traced back to the seventeenth century it was not until 150 years later that Canadian opera caught up. Canadian opera became especially fashionable on Canada's 1967 centennial year. These celebrations set off an interest in operas among Canadian composers that was never seen before. This interest in opera, among composers and audience alike, is noticeable until today. However, most Canadian operatic works are not known internationally since many of them specifically concern Canadian themes and are small in scale.
The Handmaid's Tale is an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The series was ordered by the streaming service Hulu as a straight-to-series order of 10 episodes, for which production began in late 2016. The plot features a dystopia following a Second American Civil War wherein a theonomic, totalitarian society subjects fertile women, called "Handmaids", to child-bearing slavery.
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Further reading