Lighter motifs

While historically opera has been divided into comedies and tragedies, buffa and seria, Camryn Dewar believes Canada’s recent operas have tended to be overly solemn when tackling certain difficult subjects.

The Métis-Canadian soprano is thinking, in particular, about the representation of Indigenous issues — a lightning rod for both government funding and critical scrutiny in Canadian culture.

“Lots of (operas) tackle the struggle and the loss, but not many of them feature Indigenous joy and humour,” she says. “And that’s something that’s really necessary because it helps with normalization, showing us as normal people.”

Dewar, a Fulbright Scholar with a newly minted master of music in vocal performance from Montclair State University, is on a Canadian tour showcasing Indigenous Female Representation in Opera, 1879–Present. Part lecture, part singing performance, the presentation had its first Winnipeg stop last week at the University of Manitoba and returns to the Canadian Mennonite University at 11:30 a.m., March 12, in the Laudamus Auditorium.

“Looking at example from 1879, Indigenous women are sexualized, minimized,” she says. “Instead of very simple caricatures … now we are seeing real people — Indigenous women are being shown as whole people with complex character development.”

Her presentation draws on an impressive CV: she hasn’t just done a ton of scholarly research, she’s also played some of the parts she’s describing. Dewar appeared in Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North with Manitoba Opera and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and has sung on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York.

One of her favourite roles is Mimi in Indians on Vacation, which she performed at the Banff Centre in 2024.

“Mimi is a real person — she’s hilarious, she’s relatable and she’s honest almost to a fault,” she says. “Indians on Vacation, as a work, is the best representation of Indigenous people in opera that we have.”

Indians on Vacation was supposed to figure centrally into her presentation, but a recent revelation set her on a new course. The opera, whose composer Ian Cusson is Indigenous, is based on a book by prominent Canadian writer and scholar Thomas King, widely known for his work on Indigenous issues.

In November, the 82-year-old wrote an article for The Globe and Mail revealing that genealogical research showed he was not, as he’d long publicly claimed, Indigenous.

King insisted the revelation came as a shock to him, believing for the better part of a century what his family had always told him: that he was of Cherokee ancestry.

“I spent the majority of my Fulbright Scholarship researching Indians on Vacation,” says Dewar. “It was heartbreaking and such a loss to find out about Thomas King’s heritage.”

This importance is also comparative, she says, given how weak and stereotypical the representation of Indigenous women and communities have historically been in Canadian literature and opera.

Indigenous Female Representation in Opera, 1879–Present begins with an almost forgotten work called Canada’s Welcome, a masque with music performed for visiting royalty in 1879.

Much of Canadian literature and culture at the time has been considered “provincial” — anxious about its own identity, while unevenly echoing European archetypes.

As Dewar sees it, this sends Canada’s Welcome pulling in slightly different directions: sometimes exoticizing its Indigenous characters, as Romantic-era opera often did non-European people, while also maligning them in a way that might impress the colonialist outlook of its royal audience.

“There’s two ends of the spectrum: the absolute ‘savagery’ of these people and how they’re danger and violent or … the ‘noble savage’ and romanticization,” she says.

Dewar also analyzes more recent operas, including Louis Riel (1967) — composed by Harry Somers for the 1967 Canadian Centennial and one of the most significant operas to date — Missing (2017), Shanawdithit (2019) and Li Keur (2023).

While she’s proud to see how far Indigenous representation in opera has come, she thinks it’s time Canadian opera rediscovers an Indigenous sense of humour and levity. Opera buffa and seria need not be mutually exclusive.

“I want characters filled with strength and joy and humour and relatability,” she says.

As for how the tradition is supposed to move forward, at a time of relative precarity for Canada’s traditional arts sector, Dewar projects optimism.

“There are lots of composers and librettists that are passionate about it,” she says. “Because of precedent, I do feel confident that there are creators that are wanting to do this work, that are wanting to put in this effort.”

winnipegfreepress.com/conradsweatman