Bitter experience becomes art in ‘Sisters of Manzanar’

“They sent us to Manzanar,” the woman sings. “Where gales blow stinging dust and eight machine-gunned turrets tower above barbed wire. They gave us a cot, a blanket, a room in the barracks where dust blows through the cracks. And tar paper covers the roof.”

It’s not exactly the subject matter of a typical opera you’d see in Fresno.

Paul Stuart’s “The Sisters of Manzanar,” which has its world premiere Sunday at the Warnors Center for the Performing Arts, tackles a thorny historical issue: the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent in camps during World War II.

The contemporary opera tells the story of two sisters in one of those camps, the notorious Manzanar Relocation Center, located in California’s Owens Valley.

Much has been written about the Japanese-American internments, but this opera — which Stuart published in 2002 — focuses more tightly on the emotional and family trauma that resulted.

“Everyone always talks about the monetary issues, the materialistic losses, that occurred when people were sent to the camps,” says Edna Garabedian, artistic director of the California Opera Association. “But you never hear about the human losses.”

California Opera first staged excerpts of the one-act opera, which has a running time of about 50 minutes, at its 2009 summer festival.

Now the company has teamed up with the Fresno Japanese American Citizens League to produce the opera as a fundraiser to benefit the Fresno Assembly Center Memorial, which is in the final phase of completion at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds.

Fresno had two assembly centers — facilities to which Japanese-Americans were ordered to report in transit to the internment camps.

Along with the opera, Sunday’s program includes a pre-show by the Clovis Heiwa Taiko Drummers and a post-show keynote address by actor George Takei.

For Garabedian, “Manzanar” is an opportunity to do one of her favorite things: champion new operas.

“So many composers write their operas and never see the whole thing staged,” she says.

Stuart, a composer and conductor whose original operas in English include “Kill Bear Comes Home” and “The Little Thieves of Bethlehem,” which was nominated for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize, has participated in California Opera summer events in the past. He’s been hands-off in terms of the creative process for the upcoming premiere but does plan to fly in from the East Coast for the performance.

The opera is small, with two singers and three speaking roles. Garabedian tapped soprano Miwako Isano for the lead role of Amy, the older sister. Isano performed the title role in California Opera’s “Madama Butterfly” last year and has performed throughout Japan, England, Italy and the U.S.

She’s joined by soprano Lori Rohrs, who recently made her Carnegie Hall and New City Opera debuts. She plays Lana, the younger sister.

The story line follows the impact of the internment on Amy, especially, as she worries about her absent husband (a recorded spoken performance from local TV news personality George Takata), who’s serving in the U.S. Army, and the welfare of her young son.

“It’s very, very emotional,” Isano says.

Though the opera is considered contemporary, that shouldn’t scare away audience members who might associate that style with “hard to listen to,” says music director Leanna Sterios-Primiani, who will be conducting Sunday’s 14-piece chamber orchestra at the Warnors.

“It’s very tonal, very lyrical,” she says. “Think American Puccini.”

The most important thing, Garabedian says, is that opera can speak to powerful themes in a way that can heal old wounds.

“I always say that you have to ask what opera can do for the community, not what the community can do for opera,” she says.

By Donald Munro / The Fresno Bee