Additional Information
Created by Abenaki storyteller and librettist Nicole O’Bomsawin and composer Alejandra Odgers, Nanatasis paddles the vast reservoirs of three traditional Abenaki legends. The tales of Grandmother Marmot unfold, as do the epic adventures of Kl8sk8ba, boy turned man, man turned hero. The world is created from the first sound of a rattle. A giant, fearsome moose (Moz) that Kl8sk8ba reduces to the size of an everyday object. Endless winter finally giving way to spring. These are the themes of three legends brought together in this work commissioned by Musique 3 Femmes, in co-production with percussion ensemble Sixtrum and directed by Métis director and set designer Troy Hourie. Eleven musicians and four puppeteers bring the concept to life on Saturday March 8 and Sunday March 9 at Théâtre Outremont. As part of La Semaine du Neuf, mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff and composer Alejandra Odgers interview Alexandre Villemaire for PAN M 360. The work was presented in collaboration with Le Vivier in May 2024, and is now back in the context of La Semaine du Neuf.
PAN M 360: Nanatasis is a project commissioned by Musique 3 Femmes, the company you run with composer Luna Pearl Woolf and co-founded in 2018 with Suzanne Rigden and Jennifer Szeto. For those unfamiliar with your organization, what is its mission and what inspired you to found it?
Kristin Hoff : The M3F project was born of a desire to see women occupy more management positions in opera. To see women take on more roles as opera creators, stage directors, conductors and company directors. We have focused our work on creation with the biennial commissioning and development prize, the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes. This means that it’s by supporting opera creators – female composers and librettists – that we’ve had the greatest impact. Part of the reason we wanted to bring female voices into opera was because we wanted to hear stories written by women, where women can also be at the center of these stories, rather than victims or secondary to men, as is often the case in traditional opera.
That said, more generally, we’re really keen to bring new stories to the opera stage, to support voices that haven’t yet been heard in this form. That’s why we’ve opened up our MMP3F award to non-binary candidates, and we’ve also opened up a BIPOC category, to make sure we’re supporting culturally diverse voices too.
PAN M 360: What’s Nanatasis all about?
Kristin Hoff : Created by Abenaki storyteller and librettist Nicole O’Bomsawin and composer Alejandra Odgers, Nanatasis takes us on a journey through three traditional Abenaki legends, through the tales of wise Grandma Marmotte and the exciting adventures of Kl8sk8ba, a boy turned man and hero. These legends tell us the story of the creation of the world, starting with the first sound of a rattle, a giant, terrifying moz [moose] that Kl8sk8ba reduces to its present-day size, and of an endless winter that gives way to spring.
PAN M 360: Alejandra, how did the collaboration with Nicole O’Bomsawin begin?
Alejandra Odgers :In 2007, during my doctoral studies, I decided to compose a piece based on the songs of the indigenous people of my native Mexico. It was springtime, and I was in the process of researching texts when I decided to go and eat at a sugar shack. I’d heard that the Maison des peuples autochtones at Mont St-Hilaire was offering a meal with Amerindian flavours, and that there was an Abenaki woman presenting an animation with song and dance. Loving cultures from all over the world, it didn’t take much to convince me that this was the place I wanted to go. And that Abenaki woman was Nicole. I fell in love with her culture, her songs, and ended up asking her if she would agree to let me record her songs so that I could compose a piece for symphony orchestra with them. Generous as she is, she agreed, and that was the beginning of a friendship and collaboration that has lasted for 18 years, and has led to the creation of at least four of my works.
PAN M 360: What guided your inspiration and choice of instrumentation, which essentially features a percussion and flute ensemble?
Alejandra Odgers : During my lengthy interview with Nicole in 2007, I learned that the Abenaki used rattle, drum, wooden sticks and sometimes the flute as instruments. So when the time came to think about the opera’s instrumentation, the choice was already made: percussion instruments and flute. I decided to have four percussionists so as to have a musician in each corner of the stage, and have a quadraphonic effect that at the same time represented the four cardinal points.
PAN M 360: Did you conceive the music as a single narrative, or does each of the three legends have its own musical signature?
Alejandra Odgers : In fact, it’s a bit of both. It’s about three legends that could be independent. But in writing the libretto and composing the music, we created common threads that linked the three legends together. In terms of instrumentation, although the four percussionists and the flute are always present, each legend has its own “color”. For the Creation legend, the main instrument is the rattle; for Moz, drums (wood and skins); and for Pebon and Niben, metal percussion.
PAN M 360. A first presentation of excerpts from Nanatasis took place on May 30, 2024 at Salle Bourgie as part of a concert honoring the other winners of the call for works you had launched in 2022 and their creations (Je suis fille de la fille, Analía Llugdar & Emné Nasereddine; Raccoon Opera (Rebecca Gray & Rachel Gray). Are there any differences between then and the March 8 performance, and how has the work matured?
Kristin Hoff : Bourgie’s show allowed us to present a single legend in an essentially musical version. The show also featured a few puppets, videos and lighting. This is the complete version – the real one. The three legends are presented on a magnificent stage with a painted floor, animal-skin screens, the Abenaki island, with all the puppets, costumes, traditional Abenaki dances, shadow puppets, video design and full staging – the complete show with all the best and most beautiful things!
Alejandra Odgers : Also, since last year’s presentation, we’ve been fine-tuning the narrative thread that runs through the three legends. And on the musical side, we feel that the singers have made their characters their own, and the musicians really know the music and the legends. Everything is more coherent.
PAN M 360: When did the idea arise to involve the Castelliers Festival in the concert?
Kristin Hoff : I met Louise Lapointe, artistic director of Casteliers, about 18 months ago, when we were collaborating on a residency project for other creators. I told her about the project we were working on, a puppet opera featuring three Abenaki legends, which would be our first foray into puppet opera. She was seduced by the idea and asked me to send her more details. The rest is history!
PAN M 360: Kristin, as a performer in the opera, but also as its production director, what do you remember as a human experience in the process of creating this work with the various stakeholders?
Kristin Hoff: It was a great opportunity to share in many ways. Not being an Aboriginal organization, M3F approached this project with a great deal of humility. But Nicole O’Bomsawin opened up her culture and stories so that we could all enter and take part. She believes this is the best way to understand, know and love them. This generosity is very special. I am deeply grateful to her, and to the indigenous people who have contributed to this project and shared it in this way.
PAN M 360: And Alejandra, what do you remember as a human experience in the process of creating this work with the various people involved?
Alejandra Odgers : I think few things touch me more than seeing how people from different backgrounds, speaking different languages, can work together and give of their best to create something beautiful together. In this case, the Abenaki legends. It’s incredible how many people are involved in a project like this, which was intended to be “a little chamber opera”. Collaboration, sharing, mutual aid, openness, listening, patience and respect (for other people’s points of view and rhythms) were the order of the day. To manage to do so, in a long-term project such as this, is bliss and gives me hope in the complicated world we live in today.
