Blues and a Butterfly

Manitoba Opera’s 54th season will feature a once-forgotten masterpiece and a returning classic.

The 2026-27 season opens with the local première of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha: A Musical Reimagining (Nov. 21, 25, 27) and closes with Madama Butterfly (April 17, 21, 23, 2027), both performed at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Treemonisha was published in 1911 by Scott Joplin, the celebrated African-American pianist and composer often referred to as the King of Ragtime. Set during the Reconstruction era in the United States, the three-act opera focuses on the story of its title character, a young freedwoman, and fuses Western classical music with blues, gospel and ragtime.

The work proved too groundbreaking for the Euro-centric opera establishment and was produced for the first time in 1970, more than 50 years after Joplin’s death. The composer was awarded a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for his contributions to American music.

Treemonisha is a modern adaptation that retains the English opera’s original setting and characters, but expands on its story and music.

Treemonisha is a young Black woman who, as an infant, was hidden in a tree by her mother in order to escape enslavement. Raised by an adoptive family, she receives an education in exchange for her parents’ labour and becomes a community leader and peacemaker.

In the reimagined version, Treemonisha is given much more stage presence.

“In the original, at the end the community chose her as their leader, but she didn’t actually do very much for that to happen and she didn’t say very much,” says Neema Bickersteth, an Alberta-born soprano who was involved in the development of the revamped opera and will be singing the lead role for the third time this fall.

“(Librettist) Leah-Simone Bowen wanted to give Treemonisha agency and that resonated with me,” she says.

Bickersteth gave a stirring preview of two pieces — the first-act aria, Know Your Place, and the closing number, A Real Slow Drag — during Thursday’s season announcement.

Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha was produced by Toronto’s Volcano Theatre and made its world première in that city in 2023. It’s the result of a years-long cross-border collaboration between Black female creatives from Canada and the United States.

It features a new libretto co-written by playwrights Bowen and Cheryl L. Davis, and updated orchestration by Grammy-winning composer Jessie Montgomery and Grammy-nominated arranger Jannina Norpoth.

“This is probably one of the most important reimaginings of Scott Joplin’s work. It takes the ideas further and asks: how do we make these themes relevant to a 21st-century audience?” says conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson, founder of Philadelphia’s Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra.

“I think audiences can expect to be moved, but in unexpected ways.”

The production includes a large cast of singers and dancers and an onstage ensemble featuring African instruments. It is directed by Weyni Mengesha of Soulpepper Theatre with choreography by Esie Mensah.

“It’s full of one catchy tune after another; people are going to leave humming something from the show. The production looks spectacular, the costumes are just beautiful,” says Manitoba Opera interim artistic director Larry Desrochers, who has wanted to bring the opera to local audiences since seeing its première.

This is Desrochers’ final season of programming. It feels like a fitting finale, he says.

Madama Butterfly was the first opera ever presented by the Manitoba Opera during its debut season in 1972 and was last mounted in 2017. Puccini’s tragic love story follows a young Japanese geisha who marries, and is eventually betrayed by, an American naval officer.

Korean-born soprano Karah Son will sing the lead role of Cio-Cio-San, a.k.a. Madam Butterfly, next spring, with tenor Dominick Chenes making his local debut as Pinkerton.

“It’s about honouring those values of the company and not forgetting our traditions and where we come from, but finding ways to move the artform forward, include more diverse artists and tell more diverse stories,” says Desrochers, who last summer announced his departure after 25 years as the organization’s CEO and general director.

Michael Blais moved into the role of executive director last year and Manitoba Opera is set to announce a new artistic director in the coming months.

The company’s 2025-26 season wraps up next month with The Marriage of Figaro on April, 18, 22 and 24.

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