The Arrivals wash up on the shore. They make contact with another civilization they call “the Hosts.” And from there, the story splinters, following diverging perspectives. Starting as a procession through the LA State Historic Park, Sweet Land becomes an opera that erases itself.
The company that created Invisible Cities and Hopscotch, now brings you a grotesque historical pageant that disrupts the dominant narrative of American identity.
By Raven Chacon, Du Yun, Aja Couchois Duncan, and Douglas Kearney
Sweet Land was recorded live on set at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on March 15, 2020, the evening Los Angeles County issued the first lockdown orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the incredible work of our ensemble, creative, and production teams, we captured one final impassioned performance to preserve what the Los Angeles Times called "opera as astonishment." Over the next year, we collected additional studio recordings to complete the album.
We have created two listening experiences: Standard Edition and an exclusive Bandcamp Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition features a bonus track and a robust booklet illustrated with images from the live performance. The booklet includes an essay by Gundula Kreuzer, and a conversation with the composers (Raven Chacon & Du Yun), and the conductors (Marc Lowenstein & Jenny Wong).
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Creative Team
Like all of The Industry’s previous works, Sweet Land is the result of a highly collaborative and multi-perspectival approach.
Composers
Raven Chacon
Composer Raven Chacon, United States Artists fellow and winner of the Creative Capital Award, is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation.
Librettists
Aja Couchois Duncan
Librettist Aja Couchois Duncan is a mixed-race Ojibwe writer who works to advance equity and social justice.
Douglas Kearney
Librettist Douglas Kearney is a poet whose “polyphonic diction pulls history apart, recombining it to reveal an alternative less whitewashed by enfranchised power” (BOMB Magazine)
Directors
Cannupa Hanska Luger
Co-director Cannupa Hanksa Luger is a multidisciplinary artist who interweaves performance and political action to communicate stories about 21st-century Indigeneity.
Yuval Sharon
Co-director Yuval Sharon is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Industry and a 2017 MacArthur Fellow.
Credits
Creative Team
- COMPOSERRaven Chacon
- COMPOSERDu Yun
- LIBRETTISTAja Couchois Duncan
- LIBRETTISTDouglas Kearney*
- DIRECTOR & COSTUME DESIGNER Cannupa Hanska Luger
- DIRECTORYuval Sharon
- ASSOCIATE DIRECTORJonathan Muñoz-Proulx
- SOUND DESIGNERJody Elff
- PRODUCTION/LIGHTING DESIGNERJeanette Oi-Suk Yew
- PROJECTION DESIGNERHana S. Kim
- PROJECTION ADVISOR Alex Schweder
- SCENIC DESIGNERTanya Orellana
- SCENIC DESIGNER Carlo Maghirang
- COSTUME DESIGNER E.B. Brooks
- CHOREOGRAPHER Tonantzin Carmelo
CAST
- COYOTECarmina Escobar
- COYOTEMicaela Tobin
- COYOTEKathryn Shuman
- WIINDIGOSharon Chohi Kim*
- TOTAA'AR Jenny Wong
- TOTAA'AR Lucy Yates
- MAKWAKelci Hahn
- GRANDFATHERDerrell Acon
- FATHERBabatunde Akinboboye
- BROTHERFahad Siadat
- JIMMY GINScott Belluz
- GUIDEJehnean Washington
- BOWLindsay Patterson Abdou
- DRUMNandani Sinha
- CAPTAINJon Lee Keenan*
- PREACHERRichard Hodges
- RIFLEJoanna Ceja
- SCRIBEPeabody Southwell
- SCRIBEMolly Pease
- SPECK Micah Angelo Luna
- SPECK Leander Rajan
ORCHESTRA
- MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CO-CONDUCTORMarc Lowenstein
- CO-CONDUCTOR Jenny Wong
- CONCERTMASTER Maiani da Silva
- VIOLIN Adrianne Pope
- VIOLIN Mona Tian
- VIOLA Marta Honer
- VIOLA Diana Wade
- CELLO Jennifer Bewerse
- CELLO Derek Stein
- BASS Ben Finley
- BASS Hakeem Holloway
- FLUTE Erin McKibben
- FLUTE AND SAXOPHONE Damon Zick
- CLARINET AND SAXOPHONE Brian Walsh
- CLARINET AND SAXOPHONE Andrew Conrad
- TRUMPET Sarah Belle Reid
- TROMBONE Matt Barbier
- TUBA Luke Storm
- TUBA Brad Moller
- GUITAR Lily Maase
- GUITAR Michel Von Loh
- PIANO Lucy Yates
- PIANO Milena Gligic
- PERCUSSION Corey Fogel
- PERCUSSION Jordan Curcuruto
- PERCUSSION Derek Tywoniuk
PRODUCTION
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTORElizabeth Cline
- EXECUTIVE PRODUCERJhane Myers
- PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Mariana Perez-Seda
- TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Jacob Patterson
- PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Amelia Nordin
- ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx
- PROPS MASTER Erik Albidress
- ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Yael Greenberg
- STAGE MANAGERS Isabella Grace, Ben Kutner, Mitchell Webb
- ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS Kymberli Skye Butler, Aliyah Smith, Amanda Reynoso, Andrea Ruffalo, Pita Taing, Liv Wafler
- ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER & MASTER ELECTRICIAN Ashley Duke
- ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER Annie Szeliski
- WARDROBE SUPERVISOR Kaszandra A. Liput
- WARDROBE ASSISTANTS Ryan Norton, Cassidy Santos
- ASSISTANT PROJECTION DESIGN/VIDEO LEAD Erin Teachman
- CREW/VIDEO OPERATOR Tess Lauren Holtzman
- BUILD LEAD Greg Schenk
- CREW Helen Aboulhosn, Mikie Beatty, Cole Castine, Jay Emstrom, Josh Esquivel, Stephen Estrada Jr, Alex Legolvan, Roman Prado, Francesca Quintano, Mateo Rudich
- ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE Brian Sea
- ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Gabriella Rhodeen
- BOX OFFICE MANAGER Sydney McDonald
- COMMUNITY OUTREACH COORDINATOR Derrell Acon
- COMMUNITY OUTREACH ASSISTANT Alyse James
- ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, EVENTS Jaden LaRue
- COMMUNICATIONS Sounding Point
- PUBLIC RELATIONS First Chair Promotions
- GRAPHIC DESIGNVisual Issues
- FRONT OF HOUSE STAFFJay Carlon, Evangeline Crittenden, Dionna Daniel, Richie De Maria, Brenna Fredrickson, Ryan Masson, Stephanie Petagno, Jonathan Potter, On Shiu, Kelley Williams
* Denotes a Company Member of The Industry
Support for Sweet Land
Sweet Land is supported in part by generous grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, LA County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and the Pasadena Arts Alliance.
The Commissioning of Du Yun for Sweet Land received funding from OPERA America’s Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
A special thank you to our community hosts the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission.
Leadership Support for the production of Sweet Land comes from The Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Foundation, Category41, and William Anawalt and Anawalt Lumber. The music of Sweet Land is commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.
Visionary support for the production is also provided by Stuart Meiklejohn and Mary Ann O’Connor, Betsy Greenberg, Abby Sher, Myrna Cook, Ruth Eliel and Bill Cooney, Maurice Singer, and Debra Vilinsky and Michael Sopher.
Sweet Land “Directors’ Chairs” are underwritten by Leslie Lassiter and Raulee Marcus.
Major support provided by Fariba Ghaffari, Christine Adams and James Asperger, Evelyn and Stephen Block, Gary and Lolly Brown, Robert A. Ellis, Ruth Gilliland and Arthur Rieman, Adam Paris, Stephanie Barron, Dr. Erika Marina Nadir and Sam Maizel, Diane and Peter Gray, Rajika and Anupam Puri, Yuval Sharon, Yuval Bar-Zemer & Gudrun Goetschke, Hyon Chough, Anonymous, Barbara Cohn, Kyle Funn, Kenneth Reinhard and Julia Reinhard Lupton, Kiki Ramos and David Gindler, Debra and John Warfel, Dan and Liat Zuckerman, NancyBell Coe and Bill Burke, Stephanie and Alfred Shuman, Susan Bienkowski and Wang Lee, and Rosanne Ziering.
Sweet Land Ticketing and Experience FAQ
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