Name: Little Ones
Start: 2024-11-09T18:00:00-08:00
Location: Native Arts & Cultures Foundation

Little Ones, with music by Danielle Jagelski (Oneida/Ojibwe) and libretto by Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo), portrays the life of "Marigold," a 17 year old student at a Native American Residential School, following her through her senior year of high school. “Little Ones" is a dark-comedic opera that unfolds in the 1980s, delving into the evolution of the slogan "K*ll the Indian, Save the child" into a more contemporary, ostensibly benevolent version: "Save the Indian, Save them from themselves." In essence, "Little Ones" serves as a tribute to the multifaceted challenges that Indigenous young people faced during the final decade of the US residential school era, and continue to grapple with today. This work paints a vivid picture of the struggles of any person who is conflicted with their place in American society while preserving their individual identity, all within a world undergoing profound change. As daughters of Residential School survivors, Jagelski and Yazzie aim to tell this story through a lens of connection and community.
The artistic team for Little Ones includes Danielle Jagelski, composer, Rhiana Yazzie, librettist and director, Madeline Ross and Amber Kay Ball, performers.
This workshop is part of the Artists in Conversation Festival, an annual program that explores the future of opera and the performing arts through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The other opera being highlighted is The Raven, a chamber opera composed by Jesse Preis for three voices and piano from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name. In this opera, the narrator (split into two characters to capture the perspective of the Young and the Old at two different stages in life) deals with the loss of a loved one. Renegade Opera is excited to offer the Portland community an opportunity to see the process of making an opera and invite them into the conversation to give valuable feedback to the creating teams during this beginning stage of development.