Tlingit opera offers pay-as-you-can tickets at every Juneau performance but opening night

Every performance of "Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles," the first Tlingit opera in recorded history, will offer pay-as-you-can tickets at the door, except for opening night. The plan comes from Sealaska Heritage Institute and Perseverance Theatre, the two organizations producing the work.

A limited number of pay-as-you-can tickets will be available by request at the Thunder Mountain Middle School entrance before the Sept. 12-13 and Sept. 18-19 performances. All remaining tickets for the Sept. 20 closing performance are pay-as-you-can at the door. Advance single tickets remain on sale through Perseverance Theatre, with a 25% discount on purchases of six or more using the code GROUP. Alaska Airlines, six Juneau hotels and Alaska Seaplanes are also offering travel discounts, including a 10% flight discount with the code OPERA for travel Sept. 10-14 and Sept. 17-21.

The world premiere is set for Sept. 11, with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons through Sept. 20. Alaska News previously covered the production's move from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé to Thunder Mountain Middle School after an electrical failure disabled the high school's stage lighting. SHI said existing tickets and reservations would be reassigned to equivalent seats by Aug. 28.

The opera is sung in the Tlingit language, with a score grounded in Tlingit musical and performing arts traditions. It draws on historical accounts and oral traditions told from the Tlingit perspective, centering on the 1802 and 1804 Tlingit-Russian wars; SHI says the Tlingit and Haida united against the Russians in 1802 over violations of Tlingit laws and appropriation of land and resources. SHI initiated the project as an act of cultural recovery and language revitalization. Vera Starbard wrote the libretto, Edward Littlefield composed the score, X'unei Lance Twitchell translated and consulted on language, and Rory Stitt orchestrated.

"The idea of creating a Tlingit Opera came to me after listening to recordings of oral accounts in the Sitka National Historic Park collection and reading historical accounts of the Tlingit-Russian war," SHI President Rosita Worl said in the institute's release.

The title translates loosely as "the war we are in."