Episode Details

A groundbreaking Tlingit opera, “Kutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles,” just premiered in Juneau — believed to be the first-ever recorded Tlingit opera. Performed entirely in Tlingit by an all-Indigenous cast, it resurrects ancestral stories of 1802–1804 clashes between Tlingit clans and Russian-American Company forces. Born from oral histories and written records, this powerful production is both a cultural reclamation and a defiant act of resilience — once outlawed for Alaska Natives, performance now thrives as a living tradition. Created through meticulous collaboration — librettist Vera Starbard, translator Lance Twitchell, composers Edward Littlefield and Rory Stitt — it’s also a vital language preservation project. Actors like Madeline Soboleff Levy, supported by family, embody the community-driven spirit behind the work. Even without Tlingit fluency, audiences are guided through emotional, immersive storytelling — proving that history, culture, and art rise together, echoing with ancestral strength for generations.

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