Faculty Profiles
New Indigenous opera is a story of good medicine
This fall, Manitoba Opera will be performing the world premiere of Li Keur: Riel's Heart of the North, the first full-scale Indigenous-led opera presented on a Canadian mainstage. It celebrates Métis women, languages, music, and culture, with libretto written by Métis poet and scholar Dr. Suzanne Steele and music composed by Métis fiddler Alex Kusturok and CMU faculty Neil Weisensel.
Li Keur came to life through people gathering, time and again, around tables laden with food and conversation. "...Reconciliation comes through tremendous opportunity for us to enjoy one another's company slowly and steadily, through visit, respectful relationships, and of course what Li Keur is all about is the story...story is good medicine," Steele shared in comments presented at the production's launch.
The opera is sung in Heritage-Michif, French-Michif, Anishinaabemowin, French, and English. Steele travelled 9,000 kilometres by car through the Métis homeland across Canada, hearing people's stories and researching. Weisensel, and students Bryna Link and Hannah Connelly, visited the opera's translators and recorded them speaking the text in their Indigenous languages. Hearing the cadence and pronunciation was integral to composing the music.
From the project's very first meeting with the Manitoba Métis Federation, to the singers and translators coming together for one-on-one study and a feast, it's been ultimately a project of relationships.
Steele and Weisensel sat around the kitchen table of Louis Riel's great-grandniece, Paulette Duguay, eating her galette, drinking coffee, and making music together. "She said something I'll never forget, when we started talking about the project," said Weisensel, Assistant Teaching Professor of Music. "She said, 'I actually think reconciliation might be possible, when you're telling me about this project.'"
The forthcoming performances of Li Keu: Riel's Heart of the North were a highlight of the Manitoba Opera's 2023/24 season launch. Performing is Julie Lumsden (right) with CMU faculty Neil Weisensel (left).
The opera starts with a legend about the creation of the Métis people and weaves in the story of a young Métis woman learning about her great-great-grandmother's connection to Louis Riel. "I am trying, as all Indigenous women continue to, sew together our cultures, our webs of family, and from the sometimes ugly in this world, make something beautiful," Steele said.
"Researching and composing this piece has changed how I work, how I teach, and how I see the world," Weisensel said. "It's been quite transformative that way, unlike anything else I've ever done."
The project has permeated his life at CMU—influencing his work to increasingly decolonize and diversify his music theory instruction. He's incorporating work from IBPOC and female composers and looking at music from African countries and the Balinese tradition, to name a few. "I was never taught any of that when I went to school," he said, explaining he only learned about dead, white composers.
Some of the Li Keur team celebrate at the Manitoba Opera's 2023/24 season launch. Left to right: Translators Drs. Agathe Chartrand, Lorraine Coutu, June Bruce; composer Dr. Neil Weisensel; and fiddler/composer Alex Kusturok.
The opera also broadened his horizons in the actual process of creating. "I've never worked with another composer on a project," said Weisensel, who worked on some of the music with Kusturok, who joined the team to write more Métis fiddle tunes. "You think composers always compose alone because that's the way it's always been. But to actually collaborate with somebody...was very refreshing, different, new, and fun," Weisensel said. "I really learned a lot from [Kusturok]."
Seeing Li Keur approach its premiere, after seven years of working on it feels incredible, Weisensel said. The production will run November 18, 22, and 24 at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg. It features eight vocal soloists, a narrator, Michif choirs, fiddlers, dancers, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Weisensel himself.
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