The World Premiere of Iron Road was an artistic achievement that defied common business sense. The $1.3M production was twice the size of Tapestry Opera’s annual budget in 2001. With a cast of forty and an orchestra of thirty-seven, the bilingual Cantonese-English production was the largest premiere production of a Canadian opera after the COC’s 1999 premiere of Randolph Peters’ The Golden Ass, which was the first Canadian premiere for that company since Harry Somers’ Louis Riel in 1967.

Chan Ka Nin approached Tapestry in 1990 with an idea for an opera based on an intriguing historic photo of a young woman among several hundred Cantonese men, departing a Norwegian cargo ship in Vancouver, to work on the national railway. In the 1880’s, Canadian law forbade Chinese women to immigrate. Chan already had the CBC commission in hand and proposed that his brother Edmund be his librettist. Five skilled writers later, each contributing to the idea but unable to jive with the Hong Kong-born composer’s passion, it was Mark Brownell who gave voice to the opera. Chan acknowledged that in Iron Road he “rediscovered [his] musical journey and Chinese heritage.” Chan and Brownell met at Tapestry’s first Composer-Librettist Laboratory in 1995, but their creative bond finally crystallized in 1997.

Critical to the development of the story and score was the influence of dramaturg/director Tom Diamond, who grasped the epic scope of the opera but encouraged the team to pursue an intense and intimate human story. Iron Road appealed to the widest possible audience, many of whom would never have dared to attend an opera, let alone a new one. Over 50% of the audience was of Chinese descent, a community with whom Tapestry had previously had limited relationships.

Claire Hopkinson, who joined Tapestry a decade earlier, caught the creative vision, and with Board Chair Sylvia Morawetz, strategized the plan. By doubling Tapestry’s staff (from 3 to 6), mobilizing an army of volunteers, engaging with all levels of government, arts councils, foundations and corporations, Claire orchestrated the impossible dream. Senator Vivienne Poy, Ontario Lieutenant Governor Hilary Weston and the Honourable Henry R. Jackman pledged their patronage to the project. At the invitation of Senator Poy, Tapestry Artistic Director Wayne Strongman addressed and conducted Iron Road excerpts for the launch of the Chinese Canadian Heritage Fund in Vancouver. A cultivation event was hosted by the Lt. Gov. at Queen’s Park in addition to the pre-premiere performance reception at the Arcadian Court. Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson addressed the cast onstage after the curtain on opening night and hosted the post-premiere reception in the Elgin/Winter Garden lobbies.

Casting the production was a 2-year project for Strongman and Diamond. The production needed 40 cast members, including 22 artists singing in Cantonese and an additional 11 cast members of Asian descent. It was a top priority to find singers who were proficient in Cantonese and who could sing with the appropriate techniques to maintain credibility with Chinese audiences. After consulting with many singing teachers and visiting community and semi-professional choirs across the country, it became evident that the production would need to access non-professional singers. Significantly, several of the Asian performers who professionally debuted in Iron Road became part of the Stratford Festival company in Richard Rogers’ The King and I two years later.

“A powerful pageant of hope and tragedy… and in the end there was nothing for the audience to do save cheer.”
- Toronto Star

“Terrible Beauty … translucent music… great operatic moments… the sonorities brighten and bloom into a glittering, full-orchestra sunrise…”
- Globe and Mail

Winner, Outstanding New Musical, Dora Mavor Moore Awards 2001

Nominated at the 2001 Dora Mavor Moore Awards:
Choreography (Xing Bang Fu)
Costume Design (Dany Lyne)
Direction (Tom Diamond)
Lighting Design (Bonnie Beecher)
Performance - Male (Stuart Howe)
Set Design (Dany Lyne)
Principal Role (Zhu Ge Zeng)
Production

Iron Road was an idea that grafted new partnerships across many sectors, tapping into an historic icon, the building of the national railway, and the construct and myth of the “immigrant dream” which is so deeply embedded in Canada’s multicultural character. The timing coincided felicitously with the turn of the 21st Century, garnering the largest grant from the Canada Council Millennium Fund at $250,000. It also dared to reveal and honour a story that textbook histories had omitted, despite its profound impact on Canada as a nation, for more than a century. By celebrating the rarely-told stories of the thousands of Chinese immigrant workers who gave their lives to the completion of the railway through the Rocky Mountains, Iron Road became part of an ongoing awareness campaign that culminated in the Canadian government granting restitution to the survivors of Chinese immigrants who had been charged a head tax to stay in Canada when the railway was completed. Beyond the 8,100 people who attended the opera performances, “Honouring the past, imagining the future,” Tapestry’s education program engaged 3,000 young minds in the real story.

- Iron Road Education Program 2001 for schools, written by Mark Brownell and Chan Ka Nin. National Library.