Opera recounting epic Tlingit clash coming to Juneau stage
Published 5:30 am Sunday, August 30, 2026
An opera telling the tale of the historic clash between Alaska’s Native people and the Russians is coming to the Juneau stage.
Kutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles, performed in the Tlingit language, will premiere Sept. 11 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. Performances will run on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons Sept. 11-20. The opera will include a score grounded in Tlingit musical and performing arts traditions and events, some of which were formerly held in natural amphitheaters set in mountain valleys.
An electrical failure forced the relocation of the opera to Thunder Mountain. The first ever Tlingit opera, which is a joint production between Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and Perseverance Theatre (PT), was originally going to be held in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, however, an electrical failure rendered the school’s stage lighting system inoperable.
Kutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles is based on historical facts and oral traditions as told from the Tlingit perspective, focusing on stories from the Tlingit-Russian War waged in Alaska in 1802 and again in 1804. It was initiated by SHI, created by Vera Starbard (librettist), Edward Littlefield (composer), X’unei Lance Twitchell (translator and language consultant) and Rory Stitt (orchestrator), and is being produced in collaboration with PT with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the First Peoples Fund, the National New Play Network and the Mellon Foundation.
“The idea of creating a Tlingit Opera came to me after listening to recordings of oral accounts in the Sitka National Historic Park collection and reading historical accounts of the Tlingit-Russian war,” said SHI president Rosita Worl. “One account described the moments before a battle. The Tlingit and Haida were waiting on the beach. As the women beat their drums, the fog lifted, revealing the approaching Russians. I could see them advancing and hear the chaos of war: drumbeats, yelling and metal clashing.”
She said the vision for the opera is to challenge stereotypes that depict Indigenous societies as primitive and overcome the historical depictions of a tribal society without laws.
“We want to humanize Native Peoples and portray the deep feelings we have; that we sing, dance, grieve and battle as do others. We want to show that we acted strategically to allow us to survive in this new world that was engulfing us and that we willingly adapted and embraced elements of Western society,” according to an artistic statement by Worl.
“We want to portray the gender equity and the significant role women play even in warfare. We believe the uniqueness of an Indigenous story conveyed through opera can be brought to the national arena and enlighten a large segment of the nation to the richness of cultural diversity within our country.”
