Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North

680 CJOB welcomes Manitoba Opera‘s production Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, at the Centennial Concert Hall November 18th – 24th!

A CELEBRATION OF MÉTIS WOMEN, LANGUAGE & CULTURE

The first full-scale Indigenous-led opera presented on a Canadian opera mainstage

Saturday, November 18, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, November 22, 7 pm
Friday, November 24, 7:30 pm

Venue: Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg

Concept/Creative Team

This cross-cultural collaboration is a celebration of Métis women, language, and culture, conceptualized by Métis poet and librettist Dr. Suzanne M. Steele and co-composed by Alex Kusturok and Neil Weisensel.

A full-scale production, this epic music and song experience features 11 vocal soloists, an adult chorus, a children’s chorus, fiddlers, dancers, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

The Story

In this historical, mystic opera, 21st century Joséphine-Marie, through a grandmother’s story, is transported to 1870s Montana where she encounters an ancestor, the sharpshooter Josette, a runaway travelling with Riel and the last buffalo brigades. Josette falls in love with the young, passionate, Louis Riel, in disguise, on the run from assassins.

The pair confront jealousy, destiny, deprivation, and torment wrought by four shape-shifting Black Geese of Fate, but are comforted by ghost choruses of ancestors, the bison brigades, and the women of their peoples, as they try to salvage a nation and save themselves from total destruction in the burning heart of the continent of the 1870s.

Background To Story  

This opera re-places the Michif peoples and the kinship webs of the founding nationals, at the central continent, to the centre of the big stage while simultaneously redefining operatic form through an Indigenous world view of story.

Themes critical to the survival of the Métis/Michif peoples (and their kin) of the 19th century that will resonate with contemporary audiences include identity, environmental degradation, celebration, innovation, refugeehood, diaspora, and the consequences of love and idealism. While knowingly engaging with many of the tropes of opera, Li Keur, offers a fresh take on an old European artform, a take that, interestingly, may well represent opera’s earlier iterations of it being an artform of the people.

Spoken & Sung In Five Languages

At its heart, this opera seeks to celebrate Métis languages and ways of being. Sung in Southern Michif, French-Michif, Anishinaabemowin, French, and English, the opera’s text was developed with Indigenous language keepers who continue to be involved with the project. Li Keur brings these languages, which have survived decades of attempted erasure, back to the centre stage at the heart of this continent.

Métis Culture On The Mainstage

Li Keur places Métis culture, a founding culture of our province, on Manitoba Opera’s mainstage. The Red River jig, which features prominently in the score, along with other traditional and contemporary Métis music by Kusturok, is for the Métis peoples, not only a national anthem, it is a prayer, a celebration, and a compass with which Michifs find their way home. Red River music, born of a specific place and rooted in a specific culture, continue to thrive and with Li Keur this music is celebrated through the power of Métis fiddle, dance, language, and through the operatic voice.

The Creative Team 

Dr. Suzanne M. Steele  –  Librettist/Storyteller

Award-winning Métis poet, installation artist, librettist, and Canadian war artist, Suzanne Steele (Gaudry/Fayant) PhD, MLIS, BMus (voice) and Jeff Ryan’s critically acclaimed, Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, has been performed with stellar casts by the Vancouver and Toronto Symphonies and the Calgary Philharmonic. Steele has hereditary connections to Marguerite Riel. Her work is studied at the PhD, Master and undergraduate level, and broadcast internationally.

Alex Kusturok  –  Composer/Fiddler

Métis composer and writer, Alex Kusturok, has composed, recorded, and performed widely. A third- generation fiddler, he is the son of the three-time Grand Masters Fiddle Championship, Patti Kusturok, and is known for his fiery, dynamic style of fiddling and footwork.

Neil Weisensel  –  Composer

Neil Weisensel is a veteran opera composer; his background is white settler with French/German ancestry. His eight acclaimed operas have been performed over 240 times across Canada and the United States. In 2014, Vancouver Opera premiered his anti-bullying opera Stickboy. Weisensel has won grants and prizes from the National Endowment for the Arts, Opera America, and the Canada Council. He holds degrees in composition and performance from the University of Manitoba and University of British Columbia.

Simon Miron  –  Director

The production will be led by Winnipeg multi-disciplinary artist Simon Miron, a Francophone Métis who will be making his Manitoba Opera debut as director. Miron has worked on 80 productions across Canada and the UK including dozens of new works.