The Pueblo Opera Relationship: Andrea Fellows fineberg on care, feeding & reciprocity

It’s not so much data - it’s a true history. And my history with the program dates back to 1993.’

Andrea Fellows Fineberg is responding to my reason for being here at Santa Fe: that fifty years of the Pueblo Opera Program is a lot of data on First Nations engagement with classical music. We’re sitting in a cafe that wouldn’t look out of place transported to Brunswick, Melbourne, or Alexandria, Sydney, a bit different from the hummingbirds-and-clematis vibe of the Santa Fe Opera cantina.

Andrea essentially created the role of Director of Engagement at the Santa Fe Opera; before her, most community engagement projects were run by the Guilds, chapters of Santa Fe Opera volunteers located in neighbouring communities. Since the 1970s, the Pueblo Opera Program ran largely as free opera tickets for Pueblo youth, managed by volunteers, and with Connie Tsosie Gaussoin as liaison to all the Pueblos and tribal councils.

When Connie stepped down, an Advisory Council began, via an open call-out to Pueblo Opera program volunteers. At this point the relationship began to be more reciprocal, with Santa Fe Opera asking for input from the Advisory Council, and both sides working to develop more of a sense of community outside the opera season. ‘Part of what I always liked about the Pueblo Opera Program is that it’s a reciprocal relationship of hospitality and culture,’ says Andrea. ‘Hospitality is critical - we’re inviting people to our house - what does that mean? You take care of them, make them feel welcome.’ 

It’s a good way of thinking about inviting newcomers to classical music: not just as inviting people to witness an art form, but as guests being welcomed into your space. Inviting guests to your home becomes a pretty sterile affair if they don’t know how to be themselves around you, whether they’re allowed to help in your kitchen, if they have to take off their shoes - that kind of thing. As a first step in hospitality, the Santa Fe Opera started to provide dinners at Pueblo Opera Program Youth Nights, in part as a gesture of welcome, but also to acknowledge the size of commitment it was for some Pueblo folk to attend, especially from further locations. A couple of hours’ bus travel each way, plus a four-hour-opera, with no opportunity to eat, is not for the opera-ambivalent.

Andrea is frank in admitting she doesn’t feel the Santa Fe Opera has always been 100% successful in terms of accessibility and providing a welcome to members of New Mexico’s sovereign nations. I ask what she thinks has worked, and, like Marita, she points to the importance of having people in leadership positions accept invitations to Pueblo feast days as part of the reciprocal relationship, instead of as ‘cultural tourism’.

How do you make sure you’re not being a cultural tourist?, I ask. Andrea says to stay curious. She says it’s also important to teach cultural competency in your organisation, led by people from the relevant culture(s). And then, before you invite newcomers in, do your own check - what is the space you’re inviting people into? What did you need when you first went into that space yourself? What would have helped you?

And, of course, ‘I believe in care and feeding,’ says Andrea. Not just water and food, but also considering practical accommodations like taking breaks at relevant times for people who may not be familiar with the experience, or, if they’re performing with you, the work. At the same time, she says, it’s still important to establish the conventions of the art form. Respect for the project is really important, as are boundaries and expectations.

Yet again in Santa Fe Opera stories, Andrea points to the 2018 production of Doctor Atomic as clarifying much of this. Even thinking about it in the hectic atmosphere of the cafe, Andrea says: ‘I have chills. It was one of the most meaningful experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Walking across campus with [director] Peter Sellars is one of the most meaningful experiences you’re going to have in your life. But to work that closely with him, and to watch him work with the Pueblo communities and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium from the Trinity site, was a masterclass in being human.’

She talks about the different understandings of time between the Pueblo communities and the opera. For Pueblo people, the timing of a performance such as a corn dance is dependent on many things. A watch isn’t one of them. For Doctor Atomic, Peter emphasised that being on time is essential to everyone coming together as a community - that we can’t create a moment in time unless we all agree that time matters. A key part in ensuring that agreement worked was giving the Pueblo performers adequate time to arrive and prepare themselves for the work they were about to do.

There were other practicalities around inviting non-opera folk to be part of the opera, and making them feel welcome. Much of it seems simple, but anyone who’s ever worked backstage will be able to think of environments where some of these requirements would need a little extra boost. Andrea’s advice extends beyond feeding performers properly. Make sure they have somewhere to sit or to rest. Sofas are better than chairs; for an all-ages community engagement project, a plastic chair for three hours won’t suit everyone. Provide backstage monitors so your performers actually get to see the show. Be responsive to what you hear around the traps, whether or not it’s your responsibility, and make sure there are avenues for feedback. Don’t make assumptions - and, importantly, this includes not micro-managing, worrying too much, or treating people too gingerly. Finally, Andrea says, ‘It’s also not being “done”. Not thinking everything’s set. And also accepting not everything’s going to be perfect.’

Andrea recalls being as surprised as I was as to the extent of support the Pueblo Opera Program has found among the Pueblo communities. For a number of Pueblo folk, it’s the chance to experience a Western European tradition in the place they live; they don’t have to travel far to learn about other people’s culture, and to share in its performance at a high level. Andrea points out that there have also always been people in tribal leadership who question the opera’s motives, and the assumption that going to the opera is just what you do as Pueblo youth. Like all communities, each Pueblo has its own diversity of opinion and working to engage with them all is part of the opera’s ongoing responsibility.

‘I’ve been asked, “how do we get a Pueblo Opera Program?”’ Andrea says. ‘Like really, people have asked that clumsy of a question, and I generally have responded by saying that the Pueblo Opera Program is such a misnomer. It’s really the Pueblo Opera Relationship. That’s where the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council has helped shift people’s understanding, because we can refer to the tenets and principals of the Council by way of explaining what does it mean to have a relationship with sovereign nations on land that was stolen? So that now is really the core of the relationship - that it’s Pueblo-driven, not opera driven.”

Mesas at sunset, viewed from the Santa Fe Opera.