Charting New Destinies: Native Voices in Opera with ShanDien LaRance, Robert Mesa, and Ehren Kee Natay

Emily Doyle Moore | media@santafeopera.org | 505-986-5908

Charting New Destinies: Native Voices in Opera with ShanDien LaRance, Robert Mesa, and Ehren Kee Natay

Join Key Change for one last spin around the season six universe. Co-hosts Anna Garcia and Olga Perez Flora recall their favorite moments, including reflections on the exciting collaboration between Santa Fe Opera and the University of New Mexico.

Then, the Key Change team transports us to the first-ever libretto reading workshop for NOVA. Meet the cast of this intergalactic opera and discover how they’re interpreting familiar sci-fi tropes, such as colonization, survival, and belonging, through a uniquely Indigenous lens—featuring Robert Mesa (Navajo Nation and the Soboba Band of Mission Indians), ShanDien LaRance (Hopi, Tewa, Navajo and Assiniboine), and Ehren Kee Natay (Diné/Kewa Pueblo).

NOVA combines Indigenous futurism and humor with a choose-your-own-adventure ending to examine existential questions of personal responsibility and integrity. “That’s very much how many Indigenous tribes are bringing up their children,” explains Ehren, a multi-disciplinary artist who plays KID. “Not by telling them what to do or how to be, but to tell them these old stories that provide a moral compass of how your decisions will affect an outcome.”

Robert, an accomplished film and TV actor who plays Doc, a member of the NOVA crew, welcomes this era of Indigenous collaboration in opera. “It’s only within the past six or seven years that there has been a big burst of Native stories finally being put in the mainstream media,” he observes. “We’re breaking glass ceilings so generations behind us can flourish.”

“To be a young Indigenous woman living in these times, I think a lot about our history, our traditions,” adds ShanDien, a Native hoop dancer and instructor who plays NOVA. “But, I also carry with us that modernism and the way into the future and how we can sustain both.”

QUOTES

“I’ve been Native American for my whole life. So, the themes, I’ve seen them before. I’ve read them before. I’ve done little parts of it in different projects before and none of it really surprised me. It just made my heart really happy that it was gonna be performed in the opera.” – Robert Mesa

“I really think that the younger Indigenous generation will be attracted to this story. I do think the older Indigenous generation will be attracted. I think a lot of nerds will be attracted to this. But, it’s a really exciting story.” – ShanDien LaRance

“I like to have that sense of community and collaboration to bring about into the world what people really need. So, this opera is no exception of that.” – Ehren Kee Natay

“Part of the fun of storytelling and going to a live show is imagining what you would do in those characters’ position.” – Ehren Kee Natay

“I really feel like this story is rewriting history. So, it’s saying if the Native American culture went to another culture, they wouldn’t necessarily appropriate it. But, they were saying, “How can we respectfully come into your culture because we need you and, maybe, you need us also?” – Olga Perez Flora

CREDITS

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera, Department of Community Engagement & Education.

Produced & Edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Anna Garcia & Olga Perez Flora

Audio Engineer Collin Ungerleider & Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Technical Director Edwin R. Ruiz

Production Support from Alex Riegler

Show Notes by Lisa Widder

Theme Music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover Art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, Principal Education Sponsor of the Santa Fe Opera.

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Charting New Destinies: Native Voices in Opera with ShanDien LaRance, Robert Mesa, and Ehren Kee Natay