Charting New Destinies: Native Voices in Opera with ShanDien LaRance, Robert Mesa, and Ehren Kee Natay
About this episode
The episode explores Indigenous perspectives in opera through the lens of the NOVA project and features discussions with key artists involved.
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…
More episodes of Key Change
- Opera Without Fear: Key Change Series Finale
- TEASER: A Journey to the Stars With the Cast of NOVA [VIDEO]
- NOVA: Opera After the End of the World
- TEASER: Could The Latest Opera For All Voices Launch Us Into Space? [VIDEO]
- True Magic from Classroom to Stage with the Santa Fe Opera Young Voices and University of New Mexico Students
- TEASER: Rising Voices in Opera [VIDEO]
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