First Tlingit opera opens Sept. 11 at Thunder Mountain Middle School

Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles, billed as the first opera ever sung entirely in Tlingit, premieres Sept. 11 at Thunder Mountain Middle School, with performances Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons through Sept. 20. Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and Perseverance Theatre moved the run from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé after an electrical failure knocked out that stage's lighting system; existing tickets are being reassigned to equivalent seats by Friday, Aug. 28.

The opera is based on historical facts and oral traditions told from the Tlingit perspective, focusing on the Tlingit-Russian War waged in Alaska from 1802 to 1804. SHI commissioned playwright Vera Starbard in 2021, in partnership with Perseverance Theatre, to write the libretto.

Starbard traced the project's origin to an opening night eight and a half years ago, when SHI President Rosita Worl sat down next to her in the Perseverance Theatre lobby. "Wouldn't it be great if someone would write that opera, The Battles of Sitka?" Worl said, according to Starbard, who recounted the exchange at a panel Thursday at SHI's Clan House at 105 Heritage Way in downtown Juneau.

"It will be the first opera entirely sung in Tlingit," Starbard said. She said audiences will get a program summarizing the work scene by scene, and a storyteller will lay out the story before the performance begins, continuing what she called a tradition of oratory before Tlingit performances.

Composer Edward Littlefield described the process. "Vera gave Rune language. Rune translated it and then double translated it, got it back to Vera," he said, referring to translator X'unei Lance Twitchell. He composed each scene as the others moved ahead. Madeline Sayet directs; Rory Stitt orchestrated.

An audience member who said he is Kiksádi and speaking only for himself asked how the production handled clan-owned stories. Worl said SHI "really believes in traditional ownership of clan-owned property" and has sued large corporations to protect Tlingit intellectual property. Twitchell said the language cannot survive if its stories stay locked away.

Tickets are sold through Perseverance Theatre at ptalaska.org. Groups of six or more can get a 25% ticket discount using code GROUP. Some pay-as-you-can tickets are available Sept. 12, 13, 18 and 19; all tickets Sept. 20 are pay-as-you-can. A free matinee for junior high and high school students is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 16, through the Juneau School District. SHI had placed it at Yadaa.at Kalé, the venue the run has left; whether it moved is unstated.