30 May 2022 | 6:00 p.m. | Toronto Reference Library | In Person
This opera is significant, as it is the first-ever Hoisanese opera. Hoisanese is the dialect predominantly spoken by Chinese Railroad workers.
Co-presented with Toronto Public Library
Opening Remarks:
Vickery Bowles, City Librarian, Toronto Public Library
Justin Poy, Honorary Patron, Asian Heritage Month-CFACI
The Chinese Canadian Archive at Toronto Public Library
Arlene Chan, historian and curator
The new Chinatown Opera
This opera is significant, as it is the first-ever Hoisanese opera. Hoisanese is the dialect predominantly spoken by Chinese Railroad workers.
Presenters:
- Alice Ping Yee Ho, composer and pianist
- Madeleine Thien, librettist and novelist
- Paul Yee, historian and Hoisan translator
Performance of musical excerpts from the new opera:
- Hoisan Aria: Erica Iris Huang , mezzo soprano (erhu, percussion, piano)
- Eugene’s Aria: Derek Kwan, tenor (piano)
- Wenli’s Aria: Vania Chan, coloratura soprano (erhu, piano)
- Anna & Eugene’s Duet: Vania Chan & Derek Kwan (piano)
- Sisters’ Duet: Vania Chan & Erica Huang (erhu, piano, maybe a bit of percussion)
“CHINATOWN is a story of family and neighbourhood, racism and resistance, history and tomorrow. In two acts and two hours it examines six characters, two families, and a chorus of male ghosts, from the building of the CPR through to our own times. It deals with violence and despair, the Head Tax, the Exclusion Act, paper sons, and paper promise. It is a Western opera, but incorporates Chinese themes, sounds and sensibilities. And it is a love story.
The inspiration for CHINATOWN lies in our history, a great neighbourhood and its people, and its resistance against racism – both historical, and resurgent today.
Please join us, and bring the people you love.” City Opera Vancouver
The opera will be premiered in September 2022 in Vancouver. Composer Alice Ho generously brings a preview of this opera to Toronto.
Event co-organizers: Asian Heritage Month—Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc.; Toronto Public Library; York Centre for Asian Research, York University; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; York University; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; WE Artists’ Group; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society
Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund