An interview with soprano Shawnette Sulker, as the title character in West Edge Opera’s world premiere of Bulrusher—by Nathaniel Stookey and Eisa Davis.
West Edge Opera announced the commission of Bulrusher in 2020. Since then, Bulrusher has participated in two workshops with Mellon-Funded opera residency program Opera Fusion hosted by Cinncinnati Opera. West Edge Opera presented an orchestral preview performance of Bulrusher at The Atrium Theater in San Francisco in August 2022.
Two years after the orchestral preview performance, Bulrusher prepares for rehearsal in anticipation of the World Premiere August 3rd at The Oakland Scottish Rite Center.
Sulker performing a scene from Bulrusher at 2021's Snapshot at The Bruns.
You have been with the development of Bulrusher for…is it three years now?
Shawnette: I think so! The first workshop was in May of 2021 when we performed the opera’s opening aria with West Edge Opera’s Snapshot program. It seems like a lifetime ago.
I remember that performance! At the Bruns Amphitheater. Do you remember what your first thoughts were about this young girl from the Anderson Valley?
I remember that it was such a beautiful setting—outside in Orinda, among those hills that were starting to turn gold, and the Oak trees. Bulrusher is a creature of nature. And so, to be out there among the trees with the air on my face as I was singing Nat and Eisa’s music…it was ethereal.
Three years later, do you have a different connection?
Well, now I feel like I know the character of Bulrusher so much better. Since that initial performance in 2021, I've done the orchestral reading in 2022 in San Francisco and a workshop this year in Cincinnati.
At the most recent piano-vocal workshop in the beginning of this year, there was finally the opportunity to sit down with the originator of the story, Eisa Davis, and ask her all of my burning questions, which were many. She obliged and answered most of them… others she didn't want to answer because she said that she didn't want to mess with things Bulrusher the character will never know.
I was like: Come on Eisa! Hahah! But, she wanted me to live in the unknown or make choices as the performer independent of what she thought as the writer.
So, I've just gotten to know Bulrusher on a much deeper level.
I really enjoyed the chance to see the Berkeley Rep production of Bulrusher last fall too. That answered some questions and raised more. There's a lot to delve into this July when we start rehearsal.
A couple of weeks ago you went to Clear Lake and spent some time with the opera's Elem Pomo cultural advisor, Robert Geary, who has informed the portrayal of the opera’s ‘world’ in the Anderson Valley and Clear Lake. What was that like?
Powerful. So, I received a mysterious text from composer Nat Stookey who has become very good friends with Robert Geary. The text said: “Do you want to go to an Elem Pomo ceremony? Robert Geary welcomes you if you want to attend.” So, I called the opera’s conductor and music director Emily Senturia and I say: “Want to go?” Two days later we were in the car!
The ceremony was up north a couple hours, by Clear Lake—a Pomo Indian ceremony called "Bighead" that is always held during spring time to welcome renewal. New things are growing, re-birth, new beginnings. The ceremony was held in a ‘round house’, a round structure buried into the earth with a fire pit in the middle and a big opening at the top for the smoke to get out. The ceremony featured the male tribal members in these incredible costumes and headdresses. We were treated to an amazing, communal dinner spread out on two long, beautifully-set tables before the ceremony began.
We got there at like 5:45pm and we didn’t leave until 5:45am. I think that’s all I can say... except that it was amazing and that the experience will stay with me forever.
An illustration of a Elem Pomo ceremony.
Few people have sung an opera, even less have developed a new opera from start to finish. Is preparing to sing a role that you've helped to develop different than singing a role from an established opera—a role like ‘Cleopatra’ or ‘Poppea’?
Absolutely! Because, you know, when you're singing an opera from the standard repertoire, everything is already laid out, has already been performed a million times. In the case of a role like ‘Cleopatra’, it's a certain style and there are certain conventions that must accompany singing in that style. It's already mapped out, already clearly demarcated.
But in this case, with Bulrusher being a brand new opera, having its world premiere, there's leeway. And I’m getting to talk with the creative forces like Eisa and Nat, while it's still being mapped out. For instance, during this process, Nat has asked for my feedback and input several times and some of what we’ve discussed has made it into the score
Another example is that Emily and I, when we were in the roundhouse up in Clear Lake, were talking about character backstories in the opera. How they arrived here. How it affects the things they do… and really, how this backstory arrives into the music and the delivery of the music. Style. That conversation from the Roundhouse in the middle of the night—while the ceremony was still in full flight—will arrive in and inform the performances in some way. That’s very special for an opera singer to experience in ‘preparation’ for a role.
Sulker as Poppea in 2023 and as Cleoptara in 2022 in Julius Caesar.
What is the biggest burning question that you’re bringing from the last workshop into your final round of the upcoming rehearsal process?
Hmm. The biggest takeaway from the workshop in Cincinnati was finally having a more fleshed out understanding of this young woman Bulrusher, informed by the presence of Eisa Davis who answered a lot of my questions - not only answered but dialogued with me about it. I really connect and resonate with Bulrusher on so many levels, both through similar life experiences and what was discovered along the way of delving into her character.
And now… Now, I'm curious to see how that connection will work in the company of the complete cast. How we will all meld. I hope it will be beautiful. I hope a kind of ‘ooey and gooey’ connection that brings all that Nat and Eisa have put into this beautiful opera to a complete and full life.
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