In Lillian Alling, our title character comes to America seeking a new life, a life away from the tumult of her homeland, Russia. But what was happening to drive her to the shores of America?
These Guys
In 1917 the Russian Revolution was launched, overthrowing the Tsarist rule of Nicholas II, and beginning seven years of civil war that was to claim 20,000,000 lives.
In the opera, Lillian sings "I never look back" and with good reason. The period 1917 to 1925 was (as with most civil wars) a dark period for Russia and its people. Whether you were Bolshevik, Tsarist, Orthodox, or Jewish you were at constant risk of death from one of five factions at war.
The Reds: Bolsheviks led by V.I. Lenin were intent on unifiying the former Tsarist Empire under Communist rule.
The Whites: Supporters of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.
The Blacks: Anarchist army centered mostly in the Ukraine and in Moscow.
The Greens: The Ukrainian nationalists determined not to fall under the rule of either the Red Army, nor the White Army.
And who were the fifth group? Your friends and neighbors. In the course of an ongoing civil war, alliances changed, local groups formed and reformed, and today's ally could be tomorrow's enemy. Against this backdrop, Lillian Alling's arrival in New York is actually a journey in progress. What challenges did she face prior to her arrival and what drove her to the shores of Ellis Island?
In our world premiere opera Lillian Alling, our protagonist lands in NYC in the 1920's, the golden age of Jazz and the early years of what would come to be known as the "Roaring Twenties".
In the opera, we hear snatches of jazz-infused music throughout the New York City scenes, and at one point Lillian is serenaded by a group of boys singing some sidewalk popular music.
So what music might Lillian have been hearing as she roamed the streets of New York in search of her American contacts?
To hear some of this fantastic music, visit us on Blip.fm, our online radio station, where we've loaded up some wonderful tracks for you to stream.
But first, take a listen to the very first piece of Lillian Alling that we ever recorded: Sweet Polly from Poughkeepsie
And this is just a bunch of guys from the cast, sitting around our piano for a flash recording. Can't wait to hear the final version for the show! Hope you enjoyed the sneak listen!
In our opera Lillian Alling, the title character is a poor Russian immigrant who lands in New York City in the early 1920's. Like today, an immigrant in the 1920's faced many challenges, not the least of which was getting in the country in the first place.
What kind of Canada would an immigrant like Lillian Alling have encountered? In the 1920’s the official policy was to accept those most like the English, with less acceptance the further one was from the WASP profile. At the bottom of the list were Jews and those who came to Canada “from the Orient.” Source
The US had a similar racial preference for those of Nordic or English heritage, as well as restricting emigration to 2% of the population of the originating country which currently resided in the US, This significant drop in allowable emigration was the result of changing law in the 1920’s in response to growing concerns about foreign-born workers undercutting wages and raising unemployment amongst native-born workers. By 1925 the US showed a net loss of foreign-born workers. As in Canada, those of Chinese and Japanese heritage were at the bottom of the list of desired immigrants. Source
As a Russian speaker, Lillian would have been far down on the list. While our opera is not specific as to her religion, some have inferred that she is also Jewish, which would have put her even further down the list of desirable immigrants. Between 1900 and 1920, less than 3% of immigrants to Canada were Russian, and only 2%were Jewish.
A blog such as this cannot begin to address the complexity of immigration activities and legislation during this period, nor can it begin to address the varied levels of acceptance that immigrants would find in the US or Canada at the time. Then, as now, immigration was a “hot button” political topic, and even the slightest review of the arguments for/against immigration reform reveals a striking similarity to the opinions expressed today.
Another great resource to show what Lillian might have faced getting into the US in the 1920's can be found here: Source
On a final note, it is interesting that Lillian Alling would have been one of the “first wave” Russian immigrants to land on the shores of North America, a wave that brought one George Ignatieff to Canada.
An excerpt from Vancouver Foundation's latest "Success Stories" series
In the early 1920s … A young woman named Lillian Alling arrives on the east coast of North America. Part of the post-war crush of immigrants from Europe, she joins the hordes of people seeking prosperity, a new world, or just a fresh start in America. Like millions of others, she is processed through Ellis Island, and then dumped, dazed and slack-jawed, on the burgeoning streets of New York.
And like countless others before her, penniless after the trip, Alling works menial jobs just to survive. But she grows increasingly dissatisfied with the unfulfilled promise of America. Unlike most of her fellow immigrants, Alling decides to do something about it -- she will go home. With no money for the boat fare back, she decides to walk home … to Russia.
Over the next three years, Alling is spotted, walking, in Chicago, Fargo (North Dakota), Winnipeg, and Ashcroft (BC). By 1927, she has crossed the continental US, alone and apparently on foot. Almost 4,000 km, with only the clothes on her back (men’s clothes at that; they didn’t make hiking clothes and boots for women) and a piece of lead pipe for protection.
In the fall of 1927 she stops briefly in Vancouver, preparing to head north another 2,300 km to Alaska and the Bering Strait. She ends up spending the winter on the coast, part of it in Oakalla Prison Farm. Some say she was imprisoned for swearing. 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 arrives, Alling is off again, and is seen numerous times on the difficult Telegraph Trail – the only land route between Quesnel and Hazelton. There are rumours of love with a linesman, and occasional glimpses of her travelling with a dog in northern BC and Alaska. There is even an alleged report by two Inuit hunters of the time who claim to have transported a white woman across the Bering Strait.
What happened to Alling? Did she reach Russia and find her way home at last? Or perish en route?
Now, more than 80 years later … Vancouver Opera is about to premiere a new work that tells the story of Lillian Alling and her mysterious, monumental journey.
When you watch the world premiere of Lillian Alling in October, 2010, you will experience a complete story, told through words, music, drama, and theatre design. You will learn a lot about Lillian, her family, and the people she meets on her epic trek across North America into the wilds of Northwestern B.C. I think you’ll be enthralled with the opera and intrigued by the idea that Lillian’s story may be “true”.
Yes, Lillian Alling is based on an historical figure. There was a woman, claiming to be from Russia, who apparently walked and rode the rails across North American in the 1920s. She was arrested for vagrancy and spent time in Oakalla Prison Farm, near Vancouver. But there are very few known facts about her life, let alone her character. No one knows for certain where she came from, how she arrived in North America, and whether she completed her journey across the Bering Strait to Russia.
Lillian has inspired novelists, playwrights, filmmakers and historians. Australian writer Cassandra Pybus’s The Woman Who Walked To Russia, describes the author’s largely fruitless search for information about Lillian. American novelist Amy Bloom’s Away follows ‘Lillian Leyb’ from the Yiddish Theatre in New York to Seattle and Alaska. The play All the Way to Russia With Love by Susan M. Flemming was performed at the 2002 Ottawa Fringe festival. A Canadian feature film is currently in development.
Susan Smith, a writer who lives in Quesnel, B.C., is writing a “non-fiction history book” about Lillian. She heard the story about two years ago and initially thought it was just another Cariboo tall tale. She did some digging in the library and became deeply fascinated. “Even once I've finished the book, I know I'll always be looking for Lillian,” she says. I feel that many parts of Lillian's story will remain a mystery.”
Librettist John Murrell met Lillian about ten years ago, hidden in a few pages of an anthology called Wild West Women, which he bought at a book store in Banff. Intrigued, he pursued her story and, after much searching, discovered how little there is to find. “So,” says Murrell, “at some point, one has to begin to invent, with compassion and a sense of Lillian's time and place, the parts of the story which do not exist factually, and which will probably never be known to us…. In my libretto, I have conjectured a set of possible answers to all the questions we have about Lillian Alling.”
The mystery surrounding Lillian is what attracted Murrell and composer John Estacio and kept them working on the opera. “What drove her, what pulled and pushed her across an entire continent? Why was she so keen to keep these matters secret? What happened to her, why and where, for the rest of her life?” asks Murrell.
You will have to see the opera to learn the answers that Murrell and Estacio have imagined. Susan Smith will be there. “It will be the first time I ‘allow’ myself to see, read, or view a fictional treatment of Lillian. It will be a real treat for me to be able to relax after my book is finished, and to see how other people who love and admire Lillian have interpreted her story.”
~ Doug Tuck, Director of Marketing & Community Programs
Behind every great opera lurks a great libretto. Sometimes wonderful music can mask a weak story and weak libretto (script) but, in my opinion, for an opera to achieve greatness and universal, on-going acceptance, the libretto must also be of the first rank. The poet/playwright must not only supply inspiration to the composer but also deliver to the audience a moving and literate script.
For Lillian Alling we have such a libretto – and such a librettist. I am so honoured and thrilled to be working with the esteemed Canadian playwright John Murrell, who has supplied us with a stirring, mysterious, and moving libretto for our world premiere.
John is one of Canada’s most distinguished and most frequently produced playwrights (as well as a highly regarded arts advocate, mentor, and consultant). His plays have been translated into 15 languages and performed in more than 30 countries.
His best-known plays include Memoir, Waiting for the Parade, Democracy, The Faraway Nearby, Farther West, and New World. He is also a successful translator of classic theatre texts, including works by Chekhov, Sophocles, Ibsen, and Racine. He has adapted Homer’s Odyssey for young audiences, written scenarios for new works by Ballet British Columbia and The National Ballet of Canada, and the screenplay for a recent award-winning film, The Secret of the Nutcracker, produced by CBC in collaboration with Alberta Ballet.
But let’s talk about opera! “The two Johns” – Murrell and Estacio – have developed into a wonderful operatic team. Their first opera was the celebrated Filumena (2003) produced first by Calgary Opera then the Banff Centre; it was the centrepiece of The Alberta Scene at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Presented by the Edmonton Opera in November 2005, Filumena was filmed for CBC-TV’s Opening Night series and has twice been nationally telecast. Filumena was followed by Frobisher (2007), also produced by Calgary Opera and The Banff Centre.
I believe that allowing a creative team to develop over the creation of more than work is very important. Think of the great opera-writing teams: Mozart and da Ponte (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), Verdi and Piave (Rigoletto, Macbeth, La Forza del Destino), Strauss and Hofmannsthal (Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra). They were able to work together over the course of years, learning from one another, bending to accommodate one another’s strengths, developing a cohesiveness that comes only from experience.
The team of John Murrell and John Estacio has done this, thanks to Calgary Opera, The Banff Centre and Vancouver Opera, who have given them the opportunity – the freedom – to explore this art form together. Of course, the ultimate beneficiary of this luxury is the audience. I know when we hear this opera in October we will realize that this is a team that is seasoned and in its prime. Here are two samples of John’s text for Lillian Alling, with accompanying piano/vocals from our most recent workshop.
Lillian strikes out across the country, all alone, searching for the man who went before her. She is awed by the land, its stark beauty, and its promise of freedom:
LILLIAN: The land is large and smooth and green. I hear many birds, I hear no war. Such quiet I have not heard before… A place of questions, not answers, Of mistakes they do not call sins. Here nothing, Nothing is ending. Everything, Everything begins!
The land is large and smooth and green, A quiet never heard before. Its windows are open, so is its door… A place of prairies, not gardens, Not ghettos and cities, but farms. Not sadness, Not shadows, but sunlight. Everything, Everything warms!
I walk and the land comes out to meet me. I rest and the land lies down for a while. The land stretches out its hand to greet me, Mile after mile after mile after mile…!
The land is large by day or night. A music never heard before… I hear its clear voice In the telegraph lines: “You are welcome,” it says, “Go where you will. Here everything, Everything shines!”
Later in Act One, the young farmer Kristian falls quickly and rather hard for Lillian as she passes through looking for her betrothed. He cannot convince her to stay with him awhile, and shares his frustration and loneliness:
KRISTIAN: I cannot leave my father, Though I dream of it all the time. You have traveled. 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 North Dakota, I know everything about here… The here and the now. But I would love to learn about what’s out there… What the future might look like…somehow. Will you stay and teach me, just a few days? When I saw you, I could see That you are traveling To find a brand-new life. I cannot believe that is with Jozéf. I cannot believe it is being his wife! (He looks at her longingly.) Lillian Alling... Lillian Alling... Lillian Alling...
LILLIAN: What is your name?
KRISTIAN: Kristian.
LILLIAN: Kristian.
I think you can tell from these two brief selections that these are beautiful and descriptive words and music. The opera is filled with such moments – moments brought to us by Canada’s foremost operatic team.
~ James W. Wright, General Director
Credits: Allison Angelo, soprano Colin Ainsworth, tenor Kinza Tyrrell, piano Recorded January 3, 2010 at the Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto Used with permission
**I've Found a Place of Pure Delight
**We Have Had The Rain
**The Land Is Large
**Kristian's Lament
***Irene tells her son Jimmy about his dad, Scotty Macdonald
**Scotty tracks down Lillian in Vancouver
**Sweet Polly from Poughkeepsie
A World Premiere Opera
In 1927, young Lillian Alling arrives in New York City from Russia in desperate search for a man named Jozéf. Penniless, she walks across North America and into the wilds of northwestern BC, following Jozéf’s elusive path.
Seeking freedom in the future but bound to a dark past, Lillian’s fierce determination and alluring mystery drive her into danger and forever change the lives of everyone she meets. Her story will take you deep into the emotional heart of love, courage, betrayal and revenge
