In Our Own Voices explores the story of two transracial adoptees, Brooke and Olivia, as they search for their birth parents. A story not so much about answers but about the questions that many adoptees face, this story steps into the complex questions that many transracial adoptees wrestle with - questions of identity, race, loss, and belonging. The performance is a 60min chamber opera composed by Eliane Aberdam, with a libretto by Sarah Carleton, and illustrations created by Jessica Pierson-Turner.
In Our Own Voices Premiered in Rhode Island on November 2nd, 2019, at the Westerly Library and the University of Rhode Island and performed by the following artists:
Sam Hollister, Conductor, Norma Caiazza, Soprano, Joyll Smith Lamphere, Soprano, Yuriko Nonaka, Soprano, Devon Russo, Baritone
Consuelo Sherba, Viola, Jane Murray, Oboe, and Manabu Takasawa, Piano
Audience Response
“Watching something, where a part of my life was being performed in front of my eyes, was heart-stopping and beautiful all at the same time. It was moving and so gorgeously handled. yes it was tough to hear some of the lines and watch some scene but it drove it home to me even harder than when it was tough to watch or hard to hear those were the scenes that were not only the most important for the audience but also some of the most well-executed. Being represented in the form of an opera which is a career field I am training to be in made it even more beautiful and gave me an even stronger connection to the story and how it was being presented. The music wove so effortlessly into the words written and the singers involved added just another element of gorgeous execution to the piece.
I was evident to me that these words and scenes and music was being handled delicately and with great care to not set the wrong message and to represent a group of people in the most appropriate way possible and to try to help release the misunderstanding and astigmatism of adoption to every new audience that would see it. It was truly something I never even thought would be told or represented in this art form let alone at all. Having the characters who were going through it portray if for the audience with the help of the narrator and not vice versa with someone trying to speak for them made it that much more intimate and poignant.” - Makayla P. Lane, adoptee and singer
The production of In Our Own Voices is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Music Department at the University of Rhode Island, the Westerly Credit Union, the Westerly Library, and the Cercle Bernard Lazare of Grenoble.