City Opera Vancouver with Pacific Opera Victoria presents the world premiere of Missing, a profoundly moving and pivotal opera that sheds new light on a national crisis, November 3,7,9 & 11 at 8pm, and November 5 at 2pm at The York Theatre. Written by distinguished Canadian Métis playwright Marie Clements, with a gripping score by JUNO Award-winning composer Brian Current, this work confronts the immense tragedy of more than 1,200 missing and murdered First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls in Canada, and the devastation to communities and families – both First Nations and non-First Nations – left to grapple with their loss.
Missing is set between Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and BC’s notorious Highway 16 – the Highway of Tears, where at least 18 women have vanished or been found murdered since 1969. Told through both English and the First Nations language of Gitxsan (widely spoken in First Nations communities along Highway 16), this chamber opera follows the fate of an Indigenous and non-Indigenous young woman whose lives become tragically intertwined. White girl ‘Ava’ becomes mysteriously drawn to the language, traditions, and sufferings of the ‘unknown Native Girl’ with whom she crosses paths, and, thereafter, she finds herself in internal conflict as her community struggles toward reconciliation.
The official artistic committee for Missing sought the advice of First Nations women elders who have lost daughters, sisters, mothers, and friends in Canada. This performance is made possible thanks to the integral feedback and participation of many First Nations communities and leaders in Vancouver and across BC.
Missing is produced in the Downtown Eastside/Vancouver by City Opera Vancouver and Pacific Opera Victoria in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre/DTES Heart of the City Festival.
City Opera Vancouver with Pacific Opera Victoria presents: Missing
Dates: November 3,7,9 & 11, 8pm, & November 5, 2pm
Ticket Prices: From $22
Address: The York Theatre at The Cultch 639 Commercial Drive Vancouver, BC V5L 3W3
Tickets & Info: TheCultch.com
Website: cityoperavancouver.com/missing
Photo by Emily Cooper
