The acclaimed opera star returns home to Victoria as a role model for Indigenous voices.
By David Lennam
Marion Newman has returned home. The Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations mezzo-soprano is back in Victoria where she began.
And damned be the sentiments of poets about never returning home again. Home may have become a different place, but when you’ve been away for 24 years, you change, too.
For Newman, who has fashioned a career on the international stage as well as hosting CBC Radio’s popular Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, the homecoming was precipitated by an offer from the University of Victoria to join the faculty as assistant professor in the school’s music department.
“I can’t think of a better way to return to where I came from,” says UVic’s 2022 Distinguished Alumni recipient. “As an Indigenous person I really do come from a ‘place.’ When I first moved to Toronto I had this weird feeling I’d forgotten my Indigeneity and my traditions. It dawned on me shortly thereafter that was because I was not of the culture that is there and nothing felt familiar because it wasn’t. It’ll be wonderful to be close to that again.”
Whose Voice is Heard
Apart from instruction, Newman will provide a First Nations perspective that aligns with the university’s new Indigenous Plan (called Xwkwənəŋ istəl | ENEISTEL |), with its ambitious goal of embedding Indigenous ways of knowing, being and learning into programs, systems and organizational structure.
UVic isn’t just hiring a voice teacher, albeit one with years of experience on the international stage. The university is also getting someone ready to do the hard work of bridging Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds, perhaps towards Indigenizing classical music.
Newman says that is more about the process of how the music is made and rehearsed and put in front of an audience — the consideration of how people are treated and who has a voice in the decision making.
“That’s something I’m really interested in and want to bring into the classroom and the studio is how we respect each other, how we say what we need to say and how we make decisions and how we take responsibility for what we’re putting up as a collective.”
Carmen Thompson, Newman’s costume designer for the opera Missing — the story of missing and murdered Indigenous women in B.C., which premiered at Pacific Opera Victoria in 2019 — understands how the singer fits in as a role model.
“I’m excited for her,” says Thompson, who is herself of Ditidaht/Kyuquot/Coast Salish Nations background. “The role model part of her is quite big. And there’s the weight of who you are when you come back home. You’re now teaching your people, your cousins, your aunties’ daughters. It’s a big deal to come back and teach at UVic.”
“Opera is for stories that are too big to be read or said. They need to be sung out loud.”
The position allows Newman to openly share her differing perspectives and experiences. And culture.
“I can help make that whole faculty a little more welcoming to people like me. And I can make sure there’s no more person saying, ‘Well, we have to let you in because you’re an Indian.’ ”
She’s heard that before. And more. Even about being “not Indian enough” when playing an Indigenous role.
Sometimes working on operas in Europe, her Indigenous background gets more than a cocked eyebrow.
“There literally are people who don’t think we exist anymore. I have met people who are like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize there were any Indigenous people left in Canada.’ ”
She’s been asked about whether or not she has to pay taxes and, though admitting it doesn’t happen as often anymore, the notion gets raised that somehow she’s more connected to the Earth.
Opera’s Restorative Power
Perhaps opera, even with its elitist and Caucasian roots, can be an act of reconciliation. This was Newman’s experience in Missing, created by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current who, she says, had nothing to do with each other’s worlds before collaborating.
“It was really amazing to witness their friendship growing, their figuring out what questions they can ask … and their trust growing in each other and the respect given each other. It was really beautiful,” Newman says. “That is a huge act of reconciliation and I’m glad I got to witness it. It really changed Brian Current. He now conducts quite differently based on that experience.”
Thompson adds that it was refreshing to work with someone like Newman who understood her Indigenous female artist family protocol voice.
“That gave weight to her as a performer. And I really admire the performers who make sure they have all the boxes checked in a way.”
Growing up home-schooled in Sooke, in a family of teachers and artists (her father Vic and brother Carey are both master carvers), Newman was pianist before singer. But it’s her voice that provided a solid career.
“Voice really opened up a beautiful world of relating to others through words, through acting, through inhabiting other characters,” Newman says. “I was very shy and so being able to play other characters, being able to always be collaborating with people — you don’t do solo recitals all by yourself the way you do with piano — it’s just a wonderful way to become more social and to start finding my words and to take some of the weight of the performance off of just me by sharing it with a whole cast of people.”
If there’s a coda to Newman’s return engagement to Victoria, it’s a few words she once left with Pacific Opera and said they could borrow. They have. It’s this: “Opera is for stories that are too big to be read or said. They need to be sung out loud. It reaches inside you. The music pulls at your heartstrings. And you go away being changed by that story.”
Catch Saturday Afternoon at the Opera weekly from 1 to 4 pm on CBC Music. Look for Marion Newman as Maddalena in Rigoletto next April, her sixth appearance with POV.
5 vital questions for Marion Newman
What do you want people to know about you?
“I really love to laugh. I want people to know about the joyful and hilarious side of Indigenous people so they’re not pitying us. We’re still here for a reason and that’s because we’re really frickin’ hilarious.”
How do we get younger people to go to the opera?
“We might have to wait till they’re old. [She laughs.] I didn’t want to watch opera when I was little. I didn’t want to listen to it. Saturday Afternoon at the Opera would come on the radio and I would go outside to play. It’s funny that I’ve ended up doing this and that I love it so deeply now.”
If you weren’t singing opera, what would you be doing?
“I would be sewing things. I would be involved in food, especially the eating of it. Tasting things.”
Ever wish you weren’t a mezzo?
“Yes, whenever I hear the ‘Song to the Moon’ from [Antonín Dvořák’s] Rusalka. I really want to sing that aria. It sits just slightly too high for me to sustain easily.”
Who’s your favourite opera character?
“I would play Rosina [from The Barber of Seville] any time. That’s such a fun role, she’s so full of mischief and smarts. I would play Dr. Wilson [from Missing] any time even though it’s pretty heart-wrenching. Playing Dr. Wilson has made me realize a lot of cool things that I like about myself. And every time I play that role again, I learn more. I learn how to be a better person.”