Kopachuck Middle School students — as well as faculty, staff and others on hand — got to enjoy a special performance Wednesday morning when the Seattle Opera came to perform a rendition of “Heron and the Salmon Girl” with a little bit of help from the school choir.

“Heron and the Salmon Girl,” a one-act opera, is the first in a trilogy of operas called “Our Earth.” Conceived and designed with a younger audience in mind and sung in English, the story focuses on a spring when the salmon fail to return to the sea. A colorful array of characters — a hungry orca, a story-telling heron, a wise turtle and a grumpy fisherman — embark on a journey to find out where the fish have gone.

For many of the children at Kopachuck Middle School, it was likely their first encounter with opera, although by a show of hands it seemed that many had witnessed at least one opera before.

The performance itself featured Rachel DeShon’s high, clear soprano in the part of the energetic, anxious Salmon Girl — who is able to transform from a girl named Alitsa to fish and back again — as she braves a towering fisherman, a storm and the emotions of discovering her long-lost brother in a most unlikely place: Seattle.

It tuns out DeShon has a local connection, with relatives in Gig Harbor. DeShon, who was born and raised in Seattle, said she stayed at her uncle’s house in Gig Harbor the night before the performance at Kopachuck Middle School.

Fellow soprano Sonia Perez portrays Heron, who is the opera’s storyteller and the first to speak. She taught the audience how to say her name, and others, in Lushootseed, a language of the native Salish tribe.

Rounding out the cast were John Coons as the orca and Salmon Girl’s brother, and Thomas Thompson as the fisherman and turtle. Dwight Beckmeyer served as the pianist for the opera.

In keeping with the nature of the overall performance, the set and costumes were simple. Stage flats and basic props evoked watery imagery, as well as the skyline of the Emerald City. A jacket and headgear for most performers went a long way toward creating a character. In the case of Salmon Girl, a dress covered in sequins in a range of pale pinkish-orange to light pink colors sufficed to represent the hue of salmon flesh.

Kopachuck Middle School Choir Director Alison Ellis, who also teaches at Peninsula High School, helped the choir prepare for their role in singing alongside professionals.

The day of the performance was the very first time that the Seattle Opera singers and the children worked together, she said, with the pros earlier in the day instructing the children who was to do what and where to go in terms of choreography.

“The kids are like nervous cats in the back,” Ellis said shortly before the start of the show.

The performance went smoothly, with the 58-member children’s choir coming in intermittently, singing in harmony and waving blue-colored tissues up and down, representing water.

“Weren’t they wonderful?” asked an excited Ellis after the final bows had been taken.

The smiles on the faces of the students and others in the audience confirmed the answer to that question was yes.

Following the performance of the kid-friendly opera, students got a chance to ask questions of the opera singers/actors.

Most of the questions focused on the backgrounds of the Seattle Opera members and the symbology that was part of the opera.

Middle schoolers weren’t the only ones impressed by the performance.

Peninsula High School student and singing prodigy Jackson Mitchell, who is mentored by Ellis, was also impressed.

“I’m really excited,” he said. “Oh, I liked it. The singers were phenomenal and very free with their voices.”

Baritone Mitchell, 18, studies classical music and hopes to be an opera singer himself in the future.

He said he had recently been singing all over the country as part of auditions to get into music school and is anxious to find out where he will be studying.

His first choice, he said, is the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Perhaps the performance of “Heron and the Salmon Girls” at Kopachuck Middle School will inspire other young people to take up opera, or at least serve to foster an appreciation of the art form.

Kopachuck Middle School Principal Iva Scott said the in-school performance makes opera more approachable and reachable to students.

“It opens up a different world to them,” she said. “That’s the exciting piece of doing it with this age group.”


Reporter Brett Davis can be reached at 253-358-4151 or by email at brett.davis@gateline.com. Follow him on Twitter @gateway_brett.