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."
KEY CHANGE RECOMMENDED EPISODES
NOVA: Opera After the End of the World
Taking Care of the Art with Chandler Johnson, Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers
Rise to the Occasion of Your Opera Career with Chandler Johnson, Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers
True Magic from Classroom to Stage with the Santa Fe Opera Young Voices and University of New Mexico Students
An Opportunity To Encounter Excellence (And Big News!)
Connections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmos
FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Robert Mesa - Doc
ShanDien LaRance - NOVA
Ehren Kee Natay - Kid
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Hopi Nation
Navajo Nation
Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo
Santa Fe Opera Community Engagement
University Of New Mexico
Grey's Anatomy
Accused
Dark Winds
The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen
Appian Way Productions
Reservation Dogs
Flash Gordon
Star Trek
Star Wars
Alcina at Santa Fe Opera 2017
Jenůfa at Santa Fe Opera 2019
No Greater Act: Pueblo Resistance
Circles: Honoring Indigenous Santa Fe
Little Globe
Liz Lehrman Critical Response Method
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Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera, Department of Community Engagement & Education.
Share your favorite opera moments and questions with Community Engagement: agarcia@santafeopera.org
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Anna Garcia & Olga Perez Flora
Audio Engineering: 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 support of the Hankins Foundation, Principal Education Sponsor of the Santa Fe Opera.
To learn more, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange.
