When you’re collaborating with one of the most accomplished writers on the planet, you read over your emails a few times before you hit send.
At least, that’s what veteran opera composer Tobin Stokes does whenever he’s about to email Canadian literary legend Margaret Atwood.
Atwood and Stokes are collaborators on Pauline, a new chamber opera set to premiere at the York Theatre in May. “Margaret Atwood is very interested in opera, and completely understands the collaborative process,” Stokes said in a recent phone interview from Vancouver Island, where he’s developing a score and weaving it together with Atwood’s evocative text.
Sometimes Stokes will ask Atwood to provide additional words in order to accommodate the trajectory of his score; other times, he’ll email to suggest (gasp!) cuts to her text. In both scenarios and countless more, Atwood is a model team player, Stokes says.
“She likened a libretto to a coat hanger, and I’m sewing the coat that fits over the coat hanger,” he said.
Pauline explores the life of Pauline Johnson, the groundbreaking writer and performer who wrote poems such as “The Song my Paddle Sings” that became part of elementary school anthologies. “I don’t think her poetry is in current anthologies, so she’s slowly faded into the past, which is a real shame,” said Stokes. “Maybe this opera will change that a little bit.”
Johnson died in Vancouver in 1913 after an excruciating battle with breast cancer. The opera explores her morphine-ridden final days, as well as the many layers of her storied life: the tension between her English and First Nations roots, embodied in Atwood’s libretto by Johnson’s Quaker mother (imploring her to be ladylike) and her Mohawk grandfather (beckoning her to the river); the realities of travelling back and forth across the country in an era when women simply didn’t do so; her strained relationships with relatives and suitors; the legacy of her art
“It was unusual for a single woman to be on her own, to travel with actors and performers, and to make a living through her art,” said Stokes. “ [Johnson] was a real pioneer.”
An undated review of one of Johnson’s performances, from the files of SFU professor and Johnson historian Carole Gerson.
The libretto for Pauline – which integrates text written by the titular character herself – existed for years before Stokes’ involvement, as has the interest of City Opera Vancouver, which commissioned the opera. Several composers were attached to the project before Stokes was hired as part of a juried “audition” process in 2012.
Since then, Stokes has savoured the opportunity to work with the trailblazing Atwood, while also learning more about another trailblazing feminist from Canada’s past. “The way [Johnson] was, this iconic performer going back and forth across Canada, with one foot in each culture, is so truly Canadian,” said Stokes.
He’s been less enthused about composing for a space that is new and largely untested. “Often new theatres are tweaked later on, but from what we’ve heard, the acoustics are pretty darn good,” he says.
The world premiere production of Pauline stars dramatic mezzo Rose-Ellen Nichols and features Sarah Vardy, Ken Lavigne, John Minágro, Cathleen Gingrich, Edward Moran, Diane Speirs, and Eleonora Higginson. Theatre legend Norman Armour directs.
Pauline runs May 23-31 at the York Theatre. For ticket information, visit CityOperaVancouver.com.
