Rose-Ellen Nichols, mezzo soprano from Pender Harbour, has a major role in an important new work, the opera Missing, now on stage at the York Theatre in Vancouver. It is co-produced by City Opera Vancouver and Pacific Opera Victoria with libretto by First Nations playwright Marie Clements and music by Brian Current.
The narrative follows the traumatic aftermath of an alive but suffering white woman and an Aboriginal woman who was murdered along the Highway of Tears in northern B.C. It’s no coincidence that the opening night of this opera on Nov. 1 was presented at the same time as the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released an Interim Report. The opening night was a private, concert-style show by invitation for the families of the missing.
“I hope it was a help towards healing,” Nichols said. “I cried. I cry every time I hear the show. It’s emotional and my character has to cry a lot. I bear the weight of the loss of a child.”
Nichols performs as the mother of the murdered woman and she grieves openly on stage. The emotion is palpable to the back row of the theatre. Technically it’s brilliant – her keening and moaning moves to the beats of the innovative music. There are no lyrics for her in the first part of the show – only the wailing – until a powerful piece towards the end when she asks the sun and the blue sky why they still appear when she has lost her daughter.
Peter Hinton, the stage director, asked for a realistic portrayal – not as over the top as some dramatic operas. “Let the emotion out,” Nichols said. “He wants to see the emotions in our bodies.” And she does – she stands as a symbol for anyone who has ever loved a child and she brings that thought home to each audience member.
One of the more exquisite singing moments in the opera is when the two young women, one alive, one dead, perform a duet together in harmony. The connection between the two is profound and is in contrast to the negative attitudes that create barriers.
Nichols has Coast Salish heritage and learned her singing from teacher Joan Munro of Sechelt.
“She was a wonderful person and she gave me my first opera pieces,” Nichols recollects. “I loved it from an early age.” One aspect that she liked was learning to sing in various languages. For Missing, the languages are English and Gitxsan, with help for the audience from the projected sub-titles. A Gitxsan translator and diction coach as well as a linguistics Ph.D. student were both instrumental in helping the singers.
Nichols has had roles in many productions, including Vancouver City Opera’s 2014 opera Pauline. She last performed on the Coast in August singing at the Chamber Music Festival in Pender Harbour. Between operas Nichols works at Fabricland, as she has done for many years. She likes to sew and takes an interest in the costumes for the show.
“I’ve been sewing since the age of four and I also do beading and crocheting. I hope to design my own clothes and sell them.”
Missing gives one more performance at the York Theatre on Nov. 11, followed by an additional five nights at The Baumann Centre for Opera in Victoria. For 2018, a tour is now being planned along the Highway of Tears, from Prince Rupert to Prince George.
“All nightmares come to an end,” sings a character from the opera in an attempt to soothe the shattered woman. Let us hope that this nightmare – the missing and murdered – will also come to an end and that the healing will begin.
