Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Lillian’s Vancouver: The Chung Collection Tour



Saturday, October 2 from 2 – 3pm
Lillian’s Vancouver: The Chung Collection Tour
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, UBC
1961 Main Mall
Free admission – reservations are required


See a vivid picture of Vancouver as it would have looked to Lillian Alling. Explore the reality of immigrants, especially Chinese, as they arrived and worked here in the early part of the 20th century, with a special guided tour of The Chung Collection by UBC Library Archivist Sarah Romkey.

Click here to register.

A Historic Walk Into Lillian's World


Photo credit: Vancouver Historical Society

Sunday, October 3, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Saturday, October 9, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Lillian’s world – A Historical Stanley Park Walking Tour
Meet at the Stanley Park Pavilion


Stand where Lillian Alling might have stood when she fell in love with telegraph linesman Scotty Macdonald. Enter Lillian’s world through this historical walking tour of Stanley Park led by historical interpreter Jolene Cumming. Featuring evocative stories and enticing anecdotes, this 2 hour walking tour will focus on the experience of women and will offer rare archival photos of Stanley Park, Vancouver and The Telegraph Trail in the early 1900s.

Historical interpreter Jolene Cumming has been producing and presenting local women’s history programs and special historical events since 2001. A board member of The Friends of the Vancouver Archives and the Women’s History Network of British Columbia, she presents at museums, historical societies, conferences, schools, community and seniors’ centres. Her recent projects include a six-part walking tour series with the Stanley Park Ecology Society and co-founder and coordinator of the monthly Herstory Café.

Two tours will be held: Sunday, October,1:00pm – 3:00pm and Saturday, October 9, 10:00am - 12:00pm, rain or shine. Wear comfortable shoes.

Free admission – limited space. Reservations required. Visit www.vancouveropera.ca for details.

Meet at the Stanley Park Pavilion www.stanleyparkpavilion.com/Pavilion/Welcome.html
Accessible by the #19 bus. Pay parking available.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lillian Alling: The Manga

A mysterious woman on a journey across North America, in search of a man who is the key to unlocking her past.

Who was the larger-than-life Lillian Alling?

Here's Lillian Alling as seen through the eyes of manga artist Sarah OuYang and editor Roy Husada.













To supersize, double click on the images.

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager
Monday, September 27, 2010

Opera Speaks: Creating Lillian



Creating Lillian: Inside the Creative Process of Lillian Alling

Thursday, September 30, 2010 7-9pm
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level
Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street
Admission is free. Seating is limited.


Discover how a large-scale opera is created from scratch. Composer John Estacio, librettist John Murrell, director Kelly Robinson and members of the production team for Vancouver Opera's new commissioned opera Lillian Alling will share their three-year process of writing and producing this dramatic opera that depicts a young Russian woman's epic journey, on foot, across North America in the 1920s. Cast members will perform excerpts from the opera.

Based on a real historical character, Lillian Alling takes us on a journey from Brooklyn, New York to a Norwegian farming community in North Dakota, across the Canadian prairie and into the wilds of northwestern British Columbia. Along the way, Lillian spends time in Vancouver, is jailed in Oakalla Prison Farm, in Burnaby, and walks the famous "Telegraph Trail" to the banks of the Skeena River. Her story is sweeping, personal, romantic, and heart-wrenching. This will be a rare opportunity to get inside the creative process with an extraordinary team of opera artists.

Opera Speaks is an ongoing series of free public events that engage the community in exploring the themes and issues arising from Vancouver Opera's productions. For more information about Opera Speaks, visit www.vancouveropera.ca

Who was Lillian Alling?



In the early 1920s, a young woman named Lillian Alling arrived in New York City, joining the hordes of people processed through Ellis Island seeking prosperity and a fresh start in the New World.

Soon, for some unknown reason, Lillian decides to return to Russia-by walking across North America to Siberia. Over the next three yeras, Alling was spotted in Fargo, North Dakota and Atlin, BC. By 1927, she had crosed the continent alone and mostly on foot-almost 4,000 km wiht only the clothes on her back and a lead pipe for protection.

She spent the winter on the BC Coast, part of it in Oakalla prison farm. Some say she was imprisoned for vagrancy; others claim the local constable put her in jail because he was concerned she would try to head north during the bitter winter months. When spring arrived, Alling was off again and seen on the treacherous Telegraph Trail - the only land route between Quesnel and Hazelton. There were rumours of love with a linesman and glimpses of her in Northern BC.

What happened to Lillian Alling? Did she walk all the way back to Russia? Or did she perish en route?

We may never know, for nothing more was ever heard of Lillian. Like the mists in the mountain passes or a trail of footprints in the snow, she disappeared, becoming part of the myth of the North.

VO will explore this real-life, larger-than-life mystery with the world premiere of Lillian Alling on October 16.

We hope to see you there!

Ask me anything

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Lillian Travel Blog, Entry #6

Hazelton
October, 1927


I did not think to find myself back in this town again so soon, back at the beginning of the Telegraph Trail – and without my precious freedom. I have been bitterly betrayed, by a man I thought was my friend.

After I bid farewell to Sam at Cabin One, I continue north, following the telegraph line. Sam has replenished my supplies, so I have enough food to keep me strong. I am wary of bears and wolves, but I learn not to jump at every twig breaking, at every rustle of bushes. I begin to enjoy this untamed country, to marvel at its wild beauty and to drink deeply of its moist air. Perhaps this is where I belong. But I must not daydream. I must stay focused on finding Telegraph Creek, and Jozéf.

I count on my map eight more linemen’s cabins I must pass before I reach Telegraph Creek. On the first day I make good progress, but on the second day I am slowed by rain so heavy that I am forced to take shelter. Even so, I am drenched to the skin. My boots take the worst of it. Sodden, they begin to pull apart at the seams when I start walking again.

I drop my pack and fall asleep on the bank of a stream, too chilled and exhausted even to eat. I awake in darkness to the sound of snuffling and grunting nearby. By moonlight, I make out the lumbering shape of a bear. My heart is in my throat, but the bear is too busy eating my food to notice me. I lie perfectly still while he devours the last of my dried salmon. I keep a tight grip on the pistol in my pocket – although I know it would be useless against this giant.

I travel two more days without food. I am hot with fever. At times the trail is overgrown with brambles, and I must fight my way through them. They tear at my clothes, and my skin. At last I reach Cabin Two. The door is open. I am too starving to be polite and knock. Inside the door on a shelf, I see tins of food. Without thinking, I take several. Only then do I see the lineman, sitting at his telegraph machine, his back to me. Then he turns and sees me. I run.

This lineman is young and fit. He catches me in the clearing outside the cabin, holding onto me firmly with his strong hands. I look up expecting anger, but instead I see a broad smile across his handsome face. “I know you!” he says. He calls me the “Mystery Woman”, heading for Siberia, and to my chagrin I remember the small lie I told Sam, now grown into a small legend. I have been invisible for so long that I resent the loss of my anonymity to the telegraph line.

But Scotty Macdonald is a gentleman, and he seems to understand that I do not like questions. He insists that I stay with him until my blisters have healed and my fever is gone. He warns me there will be snow before long, and tries hard to persuade me to turn back and wait out the winter in Hazelton. I wish I could explain to him what drives me to find Jozéf.

On the third day, I prepare to say good-bye. Scotty finds excuses to delay me – cutting down a pair of his pants to fit me, hiding my boots. Like a fool, I think it is because he likes me, but then I find out the real reason. The policeman, Wyman, arrives. He has come for me, because – behind my back -- Scotty has called him on his telegraph. My worst fear comes true. Wyman arrests me, and brings me back here to Hazelton. To jail! Tomorrow I will be brought before a judge. Scotty Macdonald, I will never forgive you.
Friday, September 24, 2010

Sweet Land & Lillian Alling: Parallels



If you attended the Sweet Land movie presentation at Vancity Theatre last night, you would've heard UBC professor Jean Barman draw parallels between the movie and our upcoming world premiere opera, Lillian Alling.

If you were unable to make it, here is the compelling speech that preceded the featured movie last night, compliments of Ms. Barman.

"It’s a special pleasure to be invited to introduce Sweet Land and also the upcoming Vancouver Opera production of Lillian Alling. Both are satisfying in themselves, but they are also, from my perspective, even more so when experienced together.

Sweet Land and Lillian Alling give us two opportunities to explore a critical component of ourselves as human beings. We are each born with a longing for an identity of our own.

We meet what we come to consider to be our destiny in various ways. Most of us don’t go to quite such extremes as do the protagonists in Lillian Alling and Sweet Land, which is part of what makes the opera and the movie so compelling.

For some of us, this search never much takes us beyond our roots. We are comfortable from an early age with who and where we are, and build on the world into which we were born. For others of us, it’s not possible or easy to take a chance, as we see tonight and in the upcoming production. So a friend explains to Lillian Alling in the opera:

I cannot leave my father,
Though I dream of it all the time.
You have travelled.
Please let me ask you:
Does it feel lonely,
Or does it feel free?
Does every new day fill you with strength,
Or does it fill you with fear? …
I know everything about here
The here and the now
But I would love to learn about what’s out there

In the present day, the search of identity most often begins with moving away from home to university, in search of a job, or simply to find ourselves, so goes the cliché from the 1960s and 1970s. And along the way we make decisions as to what to hold on to and of what to let go.

At some point in our lives most of us reconcile ourselves to who we are as opposed to who we think we want to be. The very first line of Lillian Alling makes this point. An elderly woman named Irene who has lived much of her life in a cabin, to quote the libretto, “somewhere in the mountains of British Columbia” prepares to leave her longtime home. “My life’s all packed up,” she laments.

Over time most of us accept ourselves for what we are with all of our shortcomings and failings, and come to take pleasure in the every day. We realize that our search for identity – our destiny if you will – lies within ourselves as opposed to being out there in some remote location which we have not yet succeeded in reaching. This too is part of what give Sweet Land and Lillian Alling their appeal.

COMPARISON OF THEMES

The movie and the opera are complements of each other in several ways, all linked to their evocations of the search for self that grounds all our lives. Four of these parallels particularly resonate for me.

TIME PERIOD. The first relates to the time period in which the movie and the opera are set. Both stories take place in the 1920s -- in our parents’ or grandparents’ time. By virtue of the time period, they serve an important function, which is to remind us that the desires we have for ourselves, and for our children and grandchildren, are not unique to our own generation.

Both evoke the 1920s as a time of immigration and so of diverse peoples learning to live together. In Lillian Alling we hear a whole number of languages reflecting where it was persons originated and how they still defined themselves, at least linguistically. In Sweet Land it is the protagonist’s initial inability to communicate in English that sets her apart as an outsider who thereby does not belong to the society which an earlier generation of immigrants are attempting to build up around themselves.

One of the strengths of both Sweet Land and Lillian Alling is the way in which they book end the principal story based in the 1920s by moving the time period into the present day. We get to observe not only how identity was pursued in the 1920s, but also how descendants closer to ourselves both fashion their destinies and reflect on their predecessors’ choices. The consequence is much richer productions encouraging us to interrogate our own responses across time even as we observe others’ being played out before us.

GENDER. Secondly, both stories centre on young women, which is a useful reminder that, even though women’s lives were long more constrained than those of men, they nonetheless acted in ways they considered to be in their own best interests.

Thes two female protagonists are counterpoints to each other. Each of their quests we can relate to ourselves, and together they are more powerful than either in isolation.

In Sweet Land, which we are going to see in the next few minutes, Inge Alltenburg seeks her destiny by travelling from Germany to Minnesota as a kind of mail order bride to a Norwegian farmer named Olaf. Her spunk and determination to make things work in adverse circumstances is what gives Sweet Land its power. Despite the local pastor warning her, and I quote, “those who are from outside God judges,” she is not deterred.

In Lillian Alling, which is based on a true story, the central character is also in pursuit of a man, who she must find, for, as she puts it, “my life is bound to his life.” Like Inge, Lillian finds her destiny through surmounting what seem to be at times impossible obstacles. Lillian treks from New York City through Minnesota and eventually through British Columbia on her way to Alaska in her pursuit of a man with whom only an encounter will permit her to become the person she is determined to be.

Lillian’s walking song leave no doubt about her strength of will and the intensity of her search, and likely that of many of us at some point in our lives:

I open my eyes.
I pick up my pack.
I pick out a path.
I never look back.
The answers I lack
Lie further ahead.
I never, I never look back.

Both Inge and Lillian are forced at some points to adapt to circumstances they had not planned on encountering. They have to decide what to hold on to and of what to let go, just as we each do in our lives.

NATURAL WORLD AS FUNDAMENTAL TO OUR DESTINY. The two stories also run parallel in a way we sometimes forgot -- perhaps less so in Vancouver than in many others places in the world -- which is the ways the natural world around us is a fundamental part of the destiny we seek for ourselves. Thus we have the elderly Irene at the beginning of Lillian Alling reminiscing about the beauty of northern British Columbia. Any of us who have lived there or travelled to the north will, I expect, share in what she feels:

The clean cold air
Falling like light through the trees
The winters
When even indoor breath can be seen
The summers
That give new meaning to what we mean by “green.”

Sweet Land similarly draws on the natural world for its authority. As a low-budget independent production, Sweet Land is unequalled for its use of the natural world as its setting. Minnesota farmland across the seasons is front and centre. The amber tones of harvest are particularly striking, so much so they make dialogue gratuitous. Overall, Sweet Land depends more on visuals, principally of the natural world, for its power than it does on words.

METRO VANCOUVER CONNECTIONS. The fourth parallel I want to highlight is the Vancouver connection.

Sweet Land, released in 2005, was financially supported and co-produced by the actor Gil Bellows, who was born and bred in Vancouver and is known, as well as for numerous movies, for his television roles as Ally McBeal’s love interest and as CIA agent Matt Callan in The Agency. While based in Los Angeles, Bellows maintains an ongoing connection with Vancouver and with the Gulf Islands.

Lillian Alling has a multiple Vancouver and also British Columbian and Canadian connection. The Vancouver Opera production opening on October 16 and running to October 23 is the world premier of a consummately Canadian production with a Canadian composer and Canadian librettist. Not only that, much of the action occurs in British Columbia.

The Vancouver region comes to prominence in two important ways. The first is by virtue of Lillian, as pointed out in the promotion for the opera, being “incarcerated in Oakalla Prison Farm near Vancouver.” While this was in the early 1920s, Oakalla, which opened in 1912 only closed in 1991. The site is now condominium development overlooking Deer Lake in Burnaby. The large park like area around Deer Lake includes the Burnaby Art Gallery, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and Burnaby Village Museum with its excellent demonstration of live blacksmithing, so I urge you the next time you are there to reflect on Lillian Alling’s incarceration.

The second way in which Lillian Alling links into Vancouver is to the city itself. The librettist has Vancouverites alternatively lamenting and rhapsodizing, and I quote:

We have had the rain and the Lord be praised!
But now it is time for a drop of sun,
A week of sunlight,
Two days,
Or even one!
When the sun shines here,
It is like the first day of Creation.
The green reaches up, the green stretches out!
When the sun shines here,
Smell the earth’s fragrant exaltation,
And recall what the Garden of Eden is all about!

Partially in response, Lillian engages in a typical Vancouver activity, so she says:

On Sunday I will go to the Stanley Park,
To look at the water and the trees.

MY OWN LINKAGE

I would like to think we will each see something of ourselves in these diverse aspects of Sweet Land and Lillian Alling. Let me close on a personal note as to how the movie and the opera resonate for me.

Much like the hero in Sweet Land, my father emigrated from Scandinavia – in his case Sweden rather than Norway – to Minnesota to farm. I grew up in a Minnesota farm house that still stands, and is an almost exact replica of the Sweet Land farmhouse, down to the outdoor clothesline with drying garments always seeming to be flapping on the wind and a prairie view that stretched as far as the eye could see. I used to think that the view went as far as the earth’s curvature, and perhaps it did.

While occurring later in time, I found many echoes of my upbringing in Sweet Land. I grew up drinking bland coffee, and like the pastor in the movie got so used to it I recoiled whenever someone, as does Inge to the pastor, offered me what he disparages as “black coffee.” The Lutheran Church I attended as a child was equally set in its ways to the one in Sweet Land, but – all the same – I got goose bumps when I heard in the movie the congregation lustily singing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Wherever our quest to find ourselves takes us in our lives, some things we never forget.

In the opera Lillian Alling the protagonists treks from Russia to British Columbia very much as I did on seeking my destiny. For me this meant in the first instance escaping from the Minnesota evoked in Sweet Land.

I began what I thought would be my career by doing a graduate degree at Harvard in Russian Studies and then writing for a London-based journal analyzing Soviet foreign policy. I can’t tell you the sense of nostalgia I felt on reading the opera’s libretto with its Russian phrases that is for me about the only remnant of my first career. “Boje moi,” my God! – I had not thought about the phrase in years and look forward to hearing it in the opera.

For various reason, my life took a turn, and this first career I surrendered to changing circumstances And so I made my trek similar to Lillian’s from Russia to British Columbia, and refashioned myself as a historian of the very same place where Lillian finds her destiny in the opera.

CONCLUSION

Most of you will likely not see yourselves quite so literally as I did in both Sweet Land and Lillian Alling, but hopefully you will also be reflected in the search for self in which we all participate by virtue of being human. It is through reducing everyday life to its essentials that the movie and the opera permit us to share in a fundamental component of what it is that makes us who we are. Inge Alltenburg and Lillian Alling each take chances and make sacrifices in search of their destinies and, as Inge reminisces in old age in looking back over her actions and their consequences, there are “different kinds of happy.”

Sweet Land and Lillian Alling give each of us an opportunity to consider the path we have taken – and continue to take -- in search of ourselves. One of the satisfying features of both the movie and the opera is that we not only share in the search for meaning but we also come to understand that, at some time in our lives, the quest ends with ourselves. As we share with these two young women their determination to reach their destiny, whatever may be the cost of doing so, we come to realize, as Lillian puts it at one point:

Your journey is yours,
My journey is mine."

~ Jean Barman, Department of Educational Studies, UBC
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Culture Days With Lillian Alling



In celebration of Culture Days, a limited number of guests will be admitted to an open rehearsal of the VO Chorus led by Associate Conductor and Chorus Director Leslie Dala as they prepare for the World Premiere of Lillian Alling.

Space is extremely limited: admission is first-come, first-served. Call 604-683-0222 to make your reservation!

Friday, September 24
Holy Rosary Hall, 650 Richards Street
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Free admission
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Lillian Alling Community Event: Sweet Land



Thursday, September 23
Film Screening: Sweet Land
Vancity Theatre, Vancouver International Film Centre
1181 Seymour Street
7:00pm


Director: Ali Selim // USA 2005 // 110 mins
Cast: Elizabeth Reaser, Patrick Heusinger, Alan Cumming, Alex Kingston, John Heard, Ned Beatty, Tim Guinee, Lois Smith

Sweet Land is a poignant and lyrical celebration of land, love, and the immigrant experience, as recollected in a man’s memory of his grandmother’s stories. Inge arrives in Minnesota in 1920 to marry a young Norwegian farmer named Olaf, but the community is suspicious of this German stranger, and the marriage is forbidden. Alone and adrift, Inge goes to live with Olaf’s friend and neighbor Frandsen and his wife Brownie, where she learns the English language, American ways, and a hard-won independence.

Similar in scope but equally as personal, Vancouver Opera’s world-première production of Lillian Alling, by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell, is a sweeping story embracing the immigrant experience of the 1920s, the history of British Columbia and the journey of a courageous and driven woman who walked from New York City across North America and along BC’s Telegraph Trail. BC historian and author Jean Barman will introduce the film and offer parallels to consider between these two stories.

Visit www.vancouveropera.ca or http://www.viff.org/theatre/ for details and to book your tickets in advance or you can purchase your tickets at the door.

Lillian Alling In Your Glass


Photo credit: Four Seasons Hotel

A romantic dinner. Drinks after work. A girls night out. A business lunch meeting.

What do they all have in common?

There are all great occasions to try out the new Lillian Alling cocktail drink at YEW Restaurant and Bar in the Four Seasons Hotel!

Heard on last weekend's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, YEW bartender extraordinaire Justin Taylor concocted this utterly original cocktail. FYI, Justin also came up with the 2010 Winter Olympic Cocktails for YEW last winter.

As for the Lillian Alling cocktail, Justin says it's "dramatic looking for the opera crowd and refreshing & delicious for a journey like Lillian's."

Lillian Alling cocktail:

2 oz vodka

1/4 tsp red cayenne pepper sauce

1/4 tsp peach bitters

3/4oz elderflower cordial

1 oz fresh lime juice

1 oz fresh cucumber

pinch of fresh cilantro

Top with seltzer water and serve in an oversized wine goblet with a tied cucumber slice.

YEW Restaurant is open everyday from 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm for dinner.

YEW Bar is open Sunday through Wednesday 11:00am - midnight & Thursday through Saturday 11:00am - 1:00am

Perfect times for a pre-show drink to get you in the mood for Lillian Alling or as a nightcap after our world premiere.

Enjoy. (but please drink responsibly).

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Lillian Travel Blog, Entry #5



On the Telegraph Trail
September, 1927


I spend longer than I intend in Hazelton, but with Jozéf so close, I must make myself ready. I find work cooking at a fishing camp. I am finding English easier to understand, but still difficult to speak. At any rate, I have little to say. I listen, invisible, to the men telling stories around the campfire at night, and I learn.

I learn that thirty years ago, gold fever seized this land. Thousands of men came from all over and traveled even further north in search of wealth. Many died and few grew rich, but still they came to find their fortune – just as Kristian told me that Jozéf has come here to find his. Those were days of big dreams, and one such dream was to build a telegraph line a thousand miles north to Dawson City. I learn that from Hazelton, they built a lineman’s cabin every 32 miles. There are nine cabins between Hazelton and Telegraph Creek – more than 300 miles I must travel by foot, through the wilderness! The men talk of bears and wild cats. I wonder however I shall survive. But survive I must. I must find Jozéf.

I set out at the end of August with as much food as I can carry, the pistol and two ten dollar bills in my pocket – all the money I have in the world. These linemen must have supplies in their cabins. Perhaps I can purchase food from them as I go.

The air is cool, for that I am grateful. But the mountains and trees make me wish for the open plains. I follow the Telegraph Trail along the broad Skeena River, keeping the wire in sight, counting 32 miles to the first lineman’s cabin. In the flat lands of North Dakota, I easily walked 32 miles in a day. But through this thick forest, up hills and down gullies, 32 miles takes me three days. Brambles catch my clothing. Insects plague me. Giant black ravens spy on me from their high perches. Every rustle of leaves is a bear or a wild cat, stalking me.

At last I follow the wire to the first cabin, nothing more than a house of logs. I knock at the door, for despite my ragged appearance after many days in the wilderness, I am still civilized. When there is no reply, I go inside. I find one room – two bunks, a table with the telegraph machine. And food. I have had nothing but berries and stream water today, so I open a tin of beans. I barely have a mouthful when I hear him coming, whistling a tune. He opens the door – a bear of a man -- and I am caught, guilty of theft, trying to explain with my broken English that I will pay him for the food.

But the man is not angry, only surprised to see me, a woman, alone out here. He tells me his name is Sam. He wants to know my name. I tell him I am Lillian Alling. He asks me many more questions. How did I come here? Where am I going? Why am I here? I begin to think this Sam is very nosy. He works for the government. Does he plan to tell the police about me? About Jozéf? So I tell him a story. I tell him I have come from New York City. I tell him I am walking home to Russia, to Siberia. At this, Sam whistles.

Sam wants me to stay. He says it is too dangerous for me, a woman alone. Perhaps if I tell him the truth, he will understand what drives me. As it is, he calls me his “Mystery Woman” as I take my leave, heading north to Jozéf.
Friday, September 17, 2010

Lillian Updates From Banff



What a fabulous two days of rehearsal we have had as we bring Lillian Alling to life. The work on the set with Stage Director Kelly Robinson and our Irene, Judith Forst and Jimmy, Roger Honeywell has been wonderful.

It is very rare in opera to have a chance to rehearse on the set but with our co-production with The Banff Centre, we are doing just that.



The set is designed by Sue LePage and is full of wonderful levels, stairs, angles and a pick-up truck!

This production incorporates a large video design which local Vancouver designer, Tim Matheson is working on here. Having the chance to look at content and begin to make cues is something we would have had to work into the wee hours of the morning during our tech week in Vancouver to achieve. We are using six projectors for both front and rear projections that will help us tell the journey the Lillian Alling takes.



The exploration and discovery that we have had in these first two days will continue with the rest of the cast until next week. All this will make the world premiere of this wonderful new opera even more special.

~ Tom Wright, Director of Artistic Planning

Photo credit: Tom Wright

A Place Of Pure Delight

For your listening pleasure, here's the latest Lillian Alling track, I've Found a Place of Pure Delight.



This song is from Scene 9 of the opera and features a sublime chorus.

Enjoy.

Who's That Girl?



Follow Lillian’s Twitter feed at @whereslillian to receive her updates from the road. Read Lillian's travel blogs here or on the Lillian Alling blog.

But who is the “voice” of Lillian?

All will be revealed on opening night: Saturday, October 16th.
Thursday, September 16, 2010

Lillian Travel Blog, Entry #4



Hazelton
August, 1927


Kristian Fjeldståd gives me a map that Jozéf left behind, a map of the Telegraph Trail, ending at his destination of Telegraph Creek. But first I must find my west and north, to Hazelton in British Columbia. Kristian thinks there is a railroad in Canada, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Kristian’s father, Karl, is not pleased to have me at their farm, a visible reminder as I am of his resentment towards Jozéf. I am not one to linger where I am not wanted. After two days, I accept Kristian’s kind offer of a little food and new boots – boots that he had outgrown – and I am on my way again.

I walk for days, heading west. The land is flat and open, wilder the further west I go. No welcoming lights of a farmhouse, no shelter from the sun. The boots Kristian gave me are too loose. I stuff them with grass, and keep walking.

Then, good fortune. I come to a broad lake which would have taken a full day to walk around, had it not been for the people I meet there, gathering wild rice. They call themselves Métis, and come from the north, from Canada. They speak mostly French and, I, little English, but we manage to work out that in exchange for helping them harvest rice from the lake, they will transport me north in their canoes.

Somewhere on the lakes and rivers we travel, we leave America behind. I do not know much about Canada, only that it is cold in winter and very large – larger than even the United States. The untamed wilderness of North Dakota gives way to endless fields of golden wheat, rising up from the river to tidy farmhouses. It feels orderly. It feels safe. Daydreaming as the Métis paddle, I picture myself living in one of these houses, working in these fields alongside my man – safe from the soldiers and police back home. I imagine what it would be like to belong here. To belong anywhere.

We part ways at Old Wives Lake. From here I walk to Moose Jaw, a small railway town with fine brick buildings -- mostly banks, it seems to me. I hop the first train I can, westward.

I travel curled in the corner of a freight car. I ration my food and water, for I have no idea how many days it will be to Hazelton. Or will it be weeks? I keep my pistol close at hand, wary of the hungry, ragged men who come and go – arriving with a thump and a fright as they hurl themselves into my car. I am constantly afraid that the railway police will spot them, and my hiding place will be given away.

When the box car is too hot and airless to bear, I take a chance and sit by the open door to feel the wind in my face. I watch the sun-bleached prairie roll by -- wheat, wheat and more wheat! -- until, one day, I see in the distance blue hills. The train stops at a place called Cow Town, according to the hobos. Next we go north to Edmonton, where I must change cars – running to catch the westbound train on legs like rubber from disuse.

This train goes through mountains so high they are capped by snow, even in mid-summer. Then Jasper, then Prince George, then countryside where the trees are as high as the mountains. Until at last we reach Hazelton. When the railway police are not looking, I leave the sanctuary of the box car. I must gather supplies, for it is from here that my most difficult journey begins – north through the wilderness along the Telegraph Trail to Telegraph Creek. To Jozéf.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Opera Speaks: Alone In A New Land



Alone in a New Land: The Immigrant Experience in Canada

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 7-9pm
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level
Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street
Admission is free. Seating is limited.


The title character in Vancouver Opera's world premiere production of Lillian Alling arrives in North America through Ellis Island, in New York, in 1927. Central to her story - a single-minded quest that takes her across the continent by foot and boxcar, into the wilds of northwestern British Columbia - is her experience as an immigrant. Alien, ostracized, exposed to danger and taking immense risk, her immigrant experience is a deeply moving undercurrent throughout the opera.

Canada's character has been built with the emotional and spiritual fibre of immigrants such as Lillian. Join a panel of experts and historians, as they portray the stories of individuals and families, from many lands, who have arrived on our shores. Panelists include Nick Noorani, prominent social entrepreneur, immigrant advocate and author of the best-selling book Arrival Survival Canada.

Opera Speaks is an ongoing series of free public events that engage the community in exploring the themes and issues arising from Vancouver Opera's productions. For more information about Opera Speaks, visit www.vancouveropera.ca

Project Onto Me II

The Lillian Alling production crew is hard at work in Banff right now. Here are more video projection goodness from designer Tim Matheson.

An award-winning projection designer, photographer, videographer, Tim Matheson has used the projection of imagery as an element of the set design in over 100 designs for theatre, opera and dance.


Scene 1: home


Scene 3: tenement stairs


Scene 8: at the park


Scene 8: telegraph wires I


Scene 8: telegraph wires II


Scene 9: Oakalla Prison


Scene 10: Vancouver streets


Scene 13: green screen climb


Scene 14: down by the river

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager

Photo credit: Tim Matheson
Monday, September 13, 2010

A Postcard From Lillian Alling



After three weeks in New York, I have not found Jozéf. I have learned only that he went to work on a farm in a place called North DAkota. With no money, I will have to travel by foot. I found a map in the library. I know it will be an arduous journey but I am determined to find him. I must find him.

I will write you again soon. Wish me luck!

Sincerely,

Lillian Alling

Lillian Alling Community Events



Engage your mind and your imagination in preparation for the world premiere of Lillian Alling, by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell. Explore music, film and BC history through VO’s Lillian Alling Community Events series, organized by Vancouver Opera in collaboration with various partners.

Wednesday, September 22, 10:00am – 11:00am
Saturday, October 2, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Lillian’s Vancouver: The Chung Collection Tour
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC
1961 Main Mall


See a vivid picture of Vancouver as it would have looked to Lillian Alling. Explore the reality of immigrants, especially Chinese, as they arrived and worked here in the early part of the 20th century, with a special guided tour of The Chung Collection by UBC Library Archivist Sarah Romkey. Two tours will be held: Wednesday, September 22, 10:00am – 11:00am and Saturday, October 2, 2:00pm – 3:00pm.

Free admission – reservations are required for each tour. Visit www.vancouveropera.ca for details.

Presented in partnership with UBC Library Vault. The Chung Collection is the generous gift of Dr. Wallace Chung and Dr. Madeline Chung, longtime patrons of Vancouver Opera.


Thursday, September 23
Film Screening: Sweet Land
Vancity Theatre, Vancouver International Film Centre
1181 Seymour Street
7:00pm


Director: Ali Selim // USA 2005 // 110 mins
Cast: Elizabeth Reaser, Patrick Heusinger, Alan Cumming, Alex Kingston, John Heard, Ned Beatty, Tim Guinee, Lois Smith

Sweet Land is a poignant and lyrical celebration of land, love, and the immigrant experience, as recollected in a man’s memory of his grandmother’s stories. Inge arrives in Minnesota in 1920 to marry a young Norwegian farmer named Olaf, but the community is suspicious of this German stranger, and the marriage is forbidden. Alone and adrift, Inge goes to live with Olaf’s friend and neighbor Frandsen and his wife Brownie, where she learns the English language, American ways, and a hard-won independence.

Similar in scope but equally as personal, Vancouver Opera’s world-première production of Lillian Alling, by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell, is a sweeping story embracing the immigrant experience of the 1920s, the history of British Columbia and the journey of a courageous and driven woman who walked from New York City across North America and along BC’s Telegraph Trail. BC historian and author Jean Barman will introduce the film and offer parallels to consider between these two stories.

Visit www.vancouveropera.ca or http://www.viff.org/theatre/ for details and to book your tickets in advance.


Friday, September 24
Open Chorus Rehearsal
Holy Rosary Hall, 650 Richards Street
7:00pm – 9:00pm


In celebration of Culture Days, a limited number of guests will be admitted to an open rehearsal of the VO Chorus as they prepare for the world premiere of Lillian Alling. Space is extremely limited: admission is first-come, first-served.

Free admission – reservations required. Call 604-683-0222 to make your reservation. Space is limited.


Sunday, September 26
The Word on the Street
Mainstage
Library Square, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
1:00pm – 1:30pm
Free admission


Where is Lillian? Popping up on the main stage at The Word on the Street, that’s where! Hear excerpts from Lillian Alling. Visit www.vancouveropera.ca or http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/vancouver for more information.


Monday, September 27
Composition Forum with John Estacio
Barnett Hall, UBC
12:00pm – 1:30pm
Free admission


John Estacio, UBC alumnus and internationally acclaimed composer of Lillian Alling, talks about the creation of this new work and the art and craft of composing. Presented in partnership with the UBC School of Music. Visit www.calendar.events.ubc.ca/cal/event/showEventMore.rdo for more information.


Thursday, September 30
Opera Speaks @ VPL: Creating Lillian: Inside the Creative Process of Lillian Alling
Alice Mackay Room, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
7:00pm – 9:00pm


Free admission

Discover how a large-scale opera is created from scratch. Composer John Estacio, librettist John Murrell, director Kelly Robinson and members of the production team for Vancouver Opera's new commissioned opera Lillian Alling will share their three year process of writing and producing this dramatic opera that depicts Lillian's epic journey, on foot, across North America in the 1920s.

Cast members will perform excerpts from the opera. This will be a rare opportunity to get inside the creative process with an extraordinary team of opera artists.


Sunday, October 3, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Saturday, October 9, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Lillian’s world – A Historical Stanley Park Walking Tour
Meet at the Stanley Park Pavilion


Stand where Lillian Alling might have stood when she fell in love with telegraph linesman Scotty Macdonald. Enter Lillian’s world through this historical walking tour of Stanley Park led by historical interpreter Jolene Cumming. Featuring evocative stories and enticing anecdotes, this 2 hour walking tour will focus on the experience of women and will offer rare archival photos of Stanley Park, Vancouver and The Telegraph Trail in the early 1900s. Two tours will be held: Sunday, October,1:00pm – 3:00pm and Saturday, October 9, 10:00am - 12:00pm, rain or shine. Wear comfortable shoes.

Free admission – limited space. Reservations required. Visit www.vancouveropera.ca for details.

Meet at the Stanley Park Pavilion www.stanleyparkpavilion.com/Pavilion/Welcome.html
Accessible by the #19 bus. Pay parking available.


Wednesday, October 6
Opera Speaks @ VPL: Alone in a New Land: The Immigrant Experience in Canada
Alice Mackay Room, Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Free admission


The title character in Lillian Alling arrives in North America through Ellis Island, in New York, in 1927. Central to her story - a single-minded quest that takes her across the continent by foot and boxcar - is her experience as an immigrant. Alien, ostracized, exposed to danger and taking immense risk, her immigrant experience is a deeply moving undercurrent throughout the opera.

Canada's character has been built with the emotional and spiritual fibre of immigrants such as Lillian. Join a panel of experts and historians as they portray the stories of individuals and families, from many lands, who have arrived on our shores. Panelists include Nick Noorani, prominent social entrepreneur, immigrant advocate and author of the best-selling book Arrival Survival Canada.

Lillian Alling: The Cast

Internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Judith Forst joins a stellar cast for Vancouver Opera’s world premiere production of Lillian Alling, the new VO commissioned opera by Canada’s foremost opera-creation team: composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell.

Joining Ms.Forst will be Quebecoise soprano Frédérique Vézina, a singer of “ravishing sensuousness” (The Toronto Star), and “golden-toned Canadian tenor” Roger Honeywell (Opera News). Baritone Aaron St.Clair Nicholson brings his “manly, rolling expressive voice and wonderful stage instincts” (Classical 96.3FM) to the cast.

The opera features four major characters: Lillian Alling, telegraph man Scotty Macdonald, and the present-day characters Irene and her son Jimmy. Here's a look at the players.



Quebecoise soprano Frédérique Vézina will create the title role. Praised for her “dark mahogany tone” (The Globe and Mail), Ms. Vézina has been a First Prize winner at the Concours International de Chant and a finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She returns to VO for the first time since her moving performances as Mimí in 2008’s La Bohème.




International Vancouver-based superstar Judith Forst, OC will create the role of Irene. Ms. Forst’s long and illustrious career includes regular performances with The Metropolitan Opera and the Canadian Opera Company. She has been called “one of the few truly world-class coloratura mezzo sopranos on the operatic stage” (COC Magazine). Ms. Forst is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Order of British Columbia and was last seen in Vancouver in VO’s 2009 production of Salome.




Roger Honeywell returns to Vancouver Opera to create the role of Jimmy. The Toronto-based tenor “with the right kind of heroic mettle to his voice” (Opera Now) returns to Vancouver Opera for this world premiere, having last sung here in 2008’s La Bohème.




Baritone Aaron St.Clair Nicholson, last seen on the VO stage earlier this year as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, creates the role of Scotty Macdonald. The Abbotsford-based Mr. Nicholson is noted for the dramatic integrity he brings to his performances. He has been highly praised for his signature role, Papageno, which he recently sang at The Metropolitan Opera.




Bass-baritone Thomas Goerz (also seen last year in The Marriage of Figaro as Dr. Bartolo) creates the roles of Constable Wyman, Sergei and the mysterious Jozéf.

Tenor Colin Ainsworth creates the roles of Bobby, Kristian and Billy; baritone Gregory Dahl sings Sam and Karl; Calvin Powell sings Charlie and The Drifter.


Left to right: Colin Ainsworth, Gregory Dahl & Calvin Powell

Lillian Alling is a sweeping and dramatic work in the tradition of operas on a grand scale. It is VO’s most ambitious commission yet, with over two hours of music, 8 principal singers, a chorus of 40, a 60-piece orchestra and more than 175 costumes created for this world premiere.

Get your tickets now!

Single tickets starting at $29 (plus handling fee) are available from the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, online at www.vancouveropera.ca, or by phone at 604-683-0222.

Lillian's Travel Blog, Entry #3



North Dakota
July, 1927


I have been traveling for weeks, but North Dakota is still hundreds of miles ahead of me. At least two more weeks of walking. Then, a stroke of luck. I meet a man who tells me that the train goes to North Dakota. I rub my fingers against my thumb, to say I have no money for a ticket. He laughs, which I take to mean neither does he.

And so with a little instruction I “hop” a train from Chicago as far as Fargo. From there I follow the Red River north to the farm of Karl Fjeldståd. As far as Jozéf’s brother, Sergei, knew, Jozéf was working for this Karl Fjeldståd. I should have had my first inkling of disappointment then. Jozéf, after all, was never given to hard labour in a farmer’s fields.

This landscape feels empty to me – flat and forlorn. The openness I loved in the spring is now punishing under the summer sun. The wind blows ceaselessly, a constant reminder of how small and powerless one is against nature. My thirst is unquenchable and my skin burnt red. I take to traveling in the mornings and evenings, and as far into the night as I dare for fear of walking in circles in the dark. My feet are blistered and I am exhausted, but impatience will not allow me to rest when I am so close to my journey’s end. To Jozéf.

It is night as I near Karl Fjeldståd’s farm. Their barn is visible a mile away, lit by torches and alive with the gay sound of fiddle music. As I draw closer, I hear singing -- the beautiful, spirited singing of many voices together. I see men and women, dancing together. My heart quickens at the thought of Jozéf’s expression when he sees me.

I find Karl Fjeldståd outside the barn, a spry man in his fifties, a little drunk -- no happier to see me than Sergei had been. For one thing, my arrival has interrupted a party. (My appearance must have been frightful compared to the pretty women dancing in fancy dresses inside the barn.) For another, the mere mention of Jozéf’s name sends him into a fury. Jozéf left weeks ago, he says. He ran off with Karl’s best boots and before the planting was done.

I am devastated to have come so close, only to find that Jozéf is gone.

Kristian, Karl’s son, takes pity on me and gives me food. In truth, the handsome young man is taken with me, don’t ask me why. Perhaps because he longs to be a traveler, like me. He is too young, too innocent to imagine what drives me on.

Kristian shares a secret with me, a secret his father does not know. Before he left, Jozéf told Kristian that he was going to find gold, in a place still further west, still further north. In a place called Telegraph Creek, in Canada. A thousand miles away. A thousand miles! My heart sinks. Will this road never end? But there is no question. I will keep going. I will find a way. For at the end of this road, I will find Jozéf.
Thursday, September 9, 2010

Lillian Alling Set Models

Our Director of Production, Terry Harper, came back from Banff a couple of weeks ago and instead of bringing us touristy t-shirts, he bought us pictures of the Lillian Alling set models.











Terry returns to Banff this week and the next time he returns, he'll be bringing the real life sets back with him!

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager
Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Lillian's Travel Blog, Entry #2



Chicago
June, 1927


I have lost count of the days since I left New York City behind me. I thought never again to look with such awe upon a place as I did upon that city of towers, but I have discovered that America is full of wonders. And space – America is full of space. Over these last weeks, I have put my sturdy shoes to good use on my way to North Dakota, on my way to Jozéf. Every day, from dawn until dark, I walk. I think of Jozéf, and how my life is bound to his.

I have seen so much I hardly know where to begin. First, everywhere there are good roads. I have marked them on the map I made at the library in New York City, and I follow them west and north to North Dakota, so that I will not get lost. These roads are full of cars, big American cars. Sometimes, these cars stop for me, for I suppose I am a curiosity, a woman, walking alone. Without fail, a man is alone in the car. My English is so poor, I have difficulty understanding their words, but their meaning is clear enough.

I will confess that once I accepted a ride with such a man. He was a salesman, I believe, for when we stopped in a town for hamburgers, he shows me a suitcase full of kitchen wares – along with a pistol he keeps in the glove box of the car. He was showing off, trying to impress me. If only he knew how hated the sight of a gun is to me, with what I have lived through.

This man has trouble keeping his hands to himself. After I finish eating, I tell him I must use the bathroom, and leave through the back door. I stop only to take the pistol from the glove box, fearing he may come after me. I am, after all, a woman alone. For the next few days, I must keep to the woodlots and fields, out of sight of the road. But the hamburger was delicious.

I have seen farmlands so vast and so fertile that the young wheat flows in the wind as far as the eye can see. I laugh to myself, in a place called Pennsylvania, to see wealthy farmers who could afford to buy many trucks using wagons and horses instead, just like the peasants back home. In the towns, I am struck my how people walk down the street smiling. Where I come from, only idiots smile so much. But like everything else in America, happiness is plentiful. I suppose it is easy to smile here.

Not everything in America is beautiful. In Ohio, the factories and steel mills make the air foul and choke the rivers. In Chicago, I see magnificent buildings like in New York City, but also newcomers from many countries, pressed together in tight quarters – like in New York City. Everyone struggles to be successful, to be American. They see my worn shoes and my dusty clothes, and they think I am a peasant – like they used to be, before they became Americans. Now, they want only Americans for friends. I hear Yiddish in the streets, but I pretend not to understand. For as much as I want to belong, I want just as much to be invisible, anonymous.

I am discovering what freedom feels like, and space to oneself. I keep away from the cities, preferring the openness of the countryside. Most nights I sleep under the stars and wake to the gentle dawn – knowing that each day brings me closer to Jozéf. America is hope, and I hope that soon I will find him. Tomorrow I set out again, north and west to North Dakota.

A Special Afternoon With VO’s General Director


Join the Opera Club on Sunday September 26th from 2-4pm at the Fletcher Challenge Theatre in the SFU Harbour Centre for a look into the process of bringing a world premiere to the stage! The Opera Club charges a drop-in fee of $10 per lecture, or you can purchase a yearly membership! For more information, visit their website here.

Lillian Alling: The Real Lillian (part 4)

Excerpted with permission from:

Wild West Women: Travellers, Adventurers and Rebels
Written by Rosemary Neering
Published by Whitecap Books Ltd.


THE MOST DETERMINED PERSON I'D EVER MET: Women Not to Be Deterred
Part 4

Service decided that he would arrest Alling for her own protection. She was searched; she carried two ten-dollar bills, a reasonably sure defence against any charge of vagrancy. Arraigned before a justice of the peace on September 21, she was convicted instead of carrying an offensive weapon, the eighteen-inch (half-metre) metal bar she had with her to protect herself, not against wild animals, but against men. One account suggests that she was asked four times if she had anything to say. At the fourth, she let fly four obscene expletives. The justice of the peace fined her twenty-five dollars, a sum she did not have. In lieu of payment, she was sentenced to two months in Oakalla Prison, near Vancouver, a ruling that would accomplish the lawmen's objective of keeping her off the trail in winter.

She duly served her time. Once she was released, prison staff found her a job for the rest of the winter at a Vancouver restaurant, where she saved as much money as she could. Come spring, she set out once more. On July 19, she arrived at Smithers, where a policeman again tried to dissuade her from her trek. She declined, but she did promise that she would check in at each of the cabins on the Telegraph Trail. This she did. Several weeks later, linesmen Jim Christie and Charlie Janze watched in amazement as she walked into the clearing where their two small cabins stood, her face badly swollen from insect bites, windburned and sunburned, slumping from exhaustion and lack of food, her clothes almost in tatters. Yet she would not turn back.

Since they knew they could not dissuade her, they tried to help. Christie gave her his cabin. Over the next three days and nights, she ate well, slept indoors and began to recuperate. Janze gave her a pair of breeches and two shirts, a felt hat and a pair of boots that would fit her smaller feet with the aid of two pairs of woollen socks. Then Christie set out with Alling towards the Nass summit and Cabin 9 on the trail. Meanwhile, linesman Scotty Ogilvie left Cabin 9 to come south to meet her. He never arrived. Trying to cross a river in flood, he tumbled in, hit his head on a snag and drowned. His fellow linesman at Cabin 9 found him the next day, his body wedged against a waterlogged cottonwood tree. Ogilvie was buried nearby. When Aliing passed this way the next day, it is said that she left behind a small bunch of wildflowers.
Friday, September 3, 2010

Lillian’s Travel Blog, Entry #1



New York City
May, 1927


Never did I think to feel the firm land under my feet again. For twelve days, my stomach tossed with the ocean. We were packed below decks like pickles in a jar, just as tight and just as stinky. There were families from many shtetls – Slonim, Motol, Pinsk – but none from Hrodna. I listened to their stories and their dreams, especially the young girls. They saw themselves in jewels and furs, married to rich Americans. But I kept my dream to myself. Jozéf is here, I know he is. Just as I know I must find him.

At last we left the ocean behind and followed the shoreline of skyscrapers, so tall that they make your neck ache just looking up at them. The ship docked to let the first and second class passengers disembark, but not us below decks. Us they put on a smaller boat, and ferried us past the Lady Liberty (she is magnificent) to Ellis Island. I will not dwell on the indignities I suffered there, for I have sworn never to look back. Only forwards. After two days, they declared me fit to begin my new life in America.

I soon discover that the people back home were wrong about one thing: the streets of New York are not paved with gold. They are crowded and noisy, with a hundred different languages that make my poor ears ring. Everyone is in a hurry to make it big, too busy to notice a poor girl like me – unless it is an oafish flirt who thinks that because my English is poor, I am too stupid to see through his charming lies.

I find a bed to share with another girl in the small apartment of a family from Gdansk. For this honour I pay them ten dollars a month, and even so they treat me like a servant. I bite my tongue and keep to myself, taking comfort from my dream of finding Jozéf. As I fall asleep at night, I try to imagine the expression on his face when he sees me.

It takes many days, but at last I find Sergei Nikitich Lazinsky, Jozéf’s brother, in Brooklyn. I walk there across a beautiful bridge that is very famous. But I find out that Jozéf exaggerated when he told us of Sergei’s success. He is living with his wife and children in a rundown tenement building, no better than the one in which I have found a shared bed in the city. I suppose that life here has hardened him, for he is suspicious and ill-tempered, and does not believe me when I tell him that I am Jozéf’s betrothed. But I am not so easily put off, and refuse to leave without an address for Jozéf. At last Sergei tells me he is working for a man in North Dakota.

I am happy, until I go to the big library and discover that North Dakota is 1500 miles from New York City. Back home, we never imagined how big America is. I do not know how I will travel there, but I will not stop. I must find Jozéf. My life is bound to his.

From the books in the library, I have drawn a map to guide my way to North Dakota. I have found work stitching hems and have saved as much money as I can – except for what I spent on new shoes. As I set out on this journey across this strange land, all I know for certain is that I will need sturdy shoes.
Thursday, September 2, 2010

Lillian Blogs!



Not only does Lillian Alling tweet, she also blogs! Starting tomorrow, we'll be posting Lillian's journal entries as she walks across North America and into the treacherous foothills of Telegraph Creek, in search of a mysterious man named Jozéf.

Go behind the scenes and into the mind of Lillian Alling. She will be blogging about arriving amidst the chaos of Ellis Island in the 1920s, hopping trains, befriending Norwegians in the North Dakota prairies, spending time in Oakalla Prison Farm and her hopes and dreams of a new life.

Follow Lillian's adventures on Twitter and here for weekly journal updates.

*journal entries may not reflect what will be seen onstage.

~ Ling Chan, Social Media Manager
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Opera Speaks: Creating Lillian



Creating Lillian: Inside the Creative Process of Lillian Alling

Thursday, September 30, 2010 7-9pm
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level
Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street
Admission is free. Seating is limited.


Discover how a large-scale opera is created from scratch. Composer John Estacio, librettist John Murrell, director Kelly Robinson and members of the production team for Vancouver Opera's new commissioned opera Lillian Alling will share their three-year process of writing and producing this dramatic opera that depicts a young Russian woman's epic journey, on foot, across North America in the 1920s. Cast members will perform excerpts from the opera.

Based on a real historical character, Lillian Alling takes us on a journey from Brooklyn, New York to a Norwegian farming community in North Dakota, across the Canadian prairie and into the wilds of northwestern British Columbia. Along the way, Lillian spends time in Vancouver, is jailed in Oakalla Prison Farm, in Burnaby, and walks the famous "Telegraph Trail" to the banks of the Skeena River. Her story is sweeping, personal, romantic, and heart-wrenching. This will be a rare opportunity to get inside the creative process with an extraordinary team of opera artists.

Opera Speaks is an ongoing series of free public events that engage the community in exploring the themes and issues arising from Vancouver Opera's productions. For more information about Opera Speaks, visit www.vancouveropera.ca