A labor dispute has spilled onto the Ordway stage, where a planned Minnesota Opera world premiere has been indefinitely postponed. Last week, I sat down with the composer and conductor of the opera “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” to discuss the ambitious production, which will be the first time a graphic novel is brought to the opera stage. More below, including Tim Gruber’s dress rehearsal photos, which provide an exclusive glimpse of what audiences will eventually see. Also below, Talya considers what Anthony Edwards’s knee surgery could mean for the Timberwolves. First, here are a few of today’s top local headlines:
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Amid contract negotiations with orchestra musicians, and a potential strike looming, the Minnesota Opera has halted the planned Halloween debut of “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr.” Orchestra musicians are calling the postponement an “effective lockout,” although opera management says that artists will receive pay for all performances under originally contracted terms. According to management, musicians declined a request to take a strike off the table for the run of “Laila Starr,” so the company had to either postpone the production or risk a last-minute cancellation. The dispute centers on the amount and structure of musicians’ pay given inflation. Musicians say they are ready to keep negotiating toward a new contract. The opera’s next performance, a concert production of “My Name Is Florence,” is scheduled for Jan. 8 and 9. Rescheduling “Laila Starr” will be a complex undertaking since opera productions require large numbers of artists, some of whom maintain busy touring schedules. “Many of the people onstage — particularly the South Asian members of the cast — are making their debuts in opera,” Kamala Sankaram, composer of the work, said in a statement posted to Instagram on Tuesday. “I was very excited to welcome them into the art form,” she continued, “to say that this art can and does belong to you and your stories.” What makes this opera special The opera is based on a graphic novel. That’s a first, according to the comic’s publisher. Sankaram saw operatic potential in the 2021 book about the goddess of Death being sent to Earth to inhabit a human body. Her journey requires some resets, hence the title.
The human voice became a “central metaphor” for Sankaram and the librettist Minita Gandhi, the composer told me. In their adaptation, humans sing while the gods’ dialogue is spoken. “It is really this fragility of the human voice that is at the center of it all,” Sankaram said. “That’s what you really get in opera: You have to be in the room. You have to experience that voice and that orchestra in person to really understand the power of it.” While poignant, the show is also witty. In a rehearsal last week, Death (Miriam A. Laube) reeled from being laid off in the realm of the gods, portrayed as a mind-numbing bureaucracy.
“She is the one who has the most actorly text in the whole thing,” Sankaram said. “Then we change to the singer, and over the course of the piece, the singer becomes more human.” How its music is unusual The opera poses a unique challenge for its conductor, Christopher Franklin: In addition to a traditional orchestra, Sankaram’s score incorporates electronics and percussion instruments unusual for opera. What’s more, the musical style varies from scene to scene. Franklin praised the orchestra musicians for their versatility. “They’re able to just flip the switch and play difficult things that a lot of orchestras one encounters would not be so comfortable doing,” he said. Then there’s the chorus, a key part of not only the music, but also the stage action. “They’re the deus ex machina,” Franklin said. “They’re like the Greek chorus, which is sort of explaining the situation.”
The story is largely set in Mumbai, India. Sankaram’s score incorporates ideas from Indian music, but she said in a Minnesota Opera video that she’s not writing “fake Indian classical music.” Sankaram didn’t want people to come in expecting a score that fits rigid expectations for traditional Indian music, she told me. “Somebody like me, who is a diasporic, biracial Indian American, there is no way I can effectively represent all of India,” she said. Creating a musical fusion “is fun for me, and it’s not going to sound like Ravi Shankar.” As a participant in Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, Sankaram is composing another upcoming premiere that’s bound to attract attention: an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Misery.” Go deeper: Read additional coverage of the labor issues from The Minnesota Star Tribune and MPR News. The musicians have announced a benefit concert at Ted Mann Concert Hall on Sunday. YOUR TIMES
Top Times stories, selected for Minnesota readers. We have made these links free for readers of The Local.
A few days ago, a friend sent me a popular social media post comparing LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards to the beloved Stud Budz, the former Lynx duo of Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Hiedeman, who now plays for the Seattle Storm, is giggling with the rest of us. Why the comparison? There’s the unmistakable chemistry between both duos, on court and on the bench. The pairs look like best friends who wandered into the Target Center to see who could have more fun on the way to winning. But we’re talking Minnesota sports here. We knew there would be a bump in the road. And here we are. On Tuesday night, The Star Tribune confirmed that Edwards would be undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee and could miss up to two months of the season.
The Wolves will have to test their chemistry now that Edwards is out. Ball, who is already wooing fans with plays like this one, will be tasked with taking a leading role on the team’s offense. Jaden McDaniels will be called upon to step up, too. Once Edwards is back, we will see if the bond that he and Ball are forming off the court helps the team. “I think a lot of people misjudge the N.B.A.; it’s just like A.A.U.,” Edwards said at an event in New York, referring to the Amateur Athletic Union. “The closer you and your team are, the more chance you’ve got to win the championships.” WEATHER
The clouds building up this afternoon could bring heavy evening rain, with the possibility of strong winds, hail and even tornadoes through tomorrow morning. Thursday will be colder, but with clear skies forecast for much of the day. OPE! JUST ONE MORE THING
This week, Matt Yan, the host of The New York Times’s college newsletter, has been reporting from the Twin Cities, where he interviewed The Minnesota Daily’s editor in chief — and realized his dream of reviewing the food at a college dining hall. “I’m so fascinated by what students are eating and what they’re enjoying,” said Matt, seen here with Macalester College students at the main campus dining hall, Café Mac. The sleeper hit, he wrote in yesterday’s newsletter, Extra Credit, was a sour-cream apple bar. “Apparently bars are a Midwestern specialty? I’m into it.” Be sure to subscribe to Extra Credit and send it to your college-age friends. Thanks for taking a break with us this afternoon! Games
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The Local: Inside look at shuttered opera
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