Charting New Destinies: Native Voices in Opera with ShanDien LaRance, Robert Mesa, and Ehren Kee Natay

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 *** 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: [email protected] 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.