“Native Americans in space” may sound like a piece of pulp fiction, but it’s exactly the concept for a new opera in development at the Sante Fe Opera.

With a libretto by Mary Kathryn Nagle and music by Brent Michael Davids, Interplanetary Opera is Sante Fe’s first Native American-created work and follows the tale of a group of Natives fleeing an increasingly inhospitable Earth to an alien planet. “We’re still in early stages, but my plan is to have an orchestra that incorporates space sounds like maybe the theremin and also traditional native stylings,” says composer Brent Michael Davids, explaining that he’s imagining using wood recorders in place of the traditional wooden flute.

The opera is an exploration of questions about colonization, and it blends Native and non-Native musical traditions. Other collaborators include astrophysicist Brittany Lehua Kamai (Native Hawaiian) as scientific advisor, choreographer Emily Johnson (a member of the Yup’ik Nation), and set and costume designer Patricia Michaels (a member of Taos Pueblo). “Many native songs follow the body of an animal, where the beginning, or head, is high in the range, and then the body of the song is middle range, and then works its way down the scale to tail off at the end,” Davids says.

Interplanetary Opera is one of two Indigenous operas receiving a Repertoire Development Grant from OPERA America. The idea for the second work, Namwayut (“We are all one”), began with opera singer and dramaturg Marion Newman, who invited librettist Yvette Nolan and composers Parmela Attariwala and Ian Cusson to develop the opera with her. “It’s an exploration of the idea that we as humans are part of the earth instead of owners of the earth or reapers of the earth, and it’s meant to be a message of hope and a sharing of cultural knowledge,” Newman says.

Calgary Opera is the lead producer and hosted the initial workshop, and Vancouver Opera is a co-producer. The team is currently working out the score, which will include found and collected natural sounds blended with orchestra, vocal soloists, and chorus. “I have been collecting field recordings of water and the wind in the trees,” says Attariwala. “My goal is to have the audience immersed and affected by a sound world that is also the world we live in — I call this acoustic ecology.”

The Repertoire Development Grant awardees are:

American Lyric Theater
She Who Dared
Composer: Jasmine Barnes
Librettist: Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
She Who Dared is about the courageous women who helped desegregate the Montgomery bus system in the 1950s.

Calgary Opera in consortium with Vancouver Opera
Namwayut
Composers: Ian Cusson and Parmela Attariwala
Librettist: Yvette Nolan
Namwayut is an allegory of Indigenous experience that follows the protagonist, Ella, as she travels through time and calls on humanity to be responsible stewards of the land.

Des Moines Metro Opera
American Apollo
Composer: Damien Geter
Librettist: Lila Palmer
American Apollo explores the relationship between John Singer Sargent, the closeted celebrity image crafter and public artist, and Thomas Eugene McKeller, the artist’s model and muse, who was also a soldier.

Long Beach Opera
Asunción
Composer: San Cha
Librettist: McCall Cadenas
Asunción is a telenovela opera about a humble flower picker on a hacienda, based on San Cha’s recently released album, La Luz de la Esperanza.

Opera Parallèle
Hello, Star
Composer: Carla Lucero
Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Hello, Star is a family opera based on the book by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic that honors the contributions of Black women to science.

Pittsburgh Opera and Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Montana, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Time to Act
Composer: Laura Kaminsky
Librettist: Crystal Manich
Time to Act (working title) brings to the stage the highly charged topic of gun violence in America and explores the long-term emotional impact that this violence has on our youth.

The Santa Fe Opera
Interplanetary Opera
Composer: Brent Michael Davids
Librettist: Mary Kathryn Nagle
Interplanetary Opera (working title) centers on a group of Natives who flee an inhospitable Earth and discover an alien civilization on another planet.