The Rough-Face Girl: An Algonquin Cinderalla
Gabriella Snyder
About this work:
The Rough-Face Girl is the story of a Native American girl, her face burned and scarred from tending the fire, who sees things others can’t, and who goes on a quest to marry the Invisible Being, finding healing in the process. Because only the woman who can see the Invisible Being can marry him, the Rough-Face Girl devotes herself to the vision quest, solving riddles, and overcoming adversity and ridicule.
In the mid-90s, the composer, Gabriella Snyder was looking for a story idea and wanted to get away from dramatic realism, telling a timeless story whose truth would resonate with the audience. She was influenced by the puppetry, symbolism and archetypes of stage plays like Julie Tamor's Lion King and the American Repertory Theatre's King Stag. She began reading fairy tales and stories from the ancient mythology of many cultures and stumbled upon “The Rough-Face Girl.” But when she couldn’t find a lyricist to work with, she shelved the idea and went on to another project.
One of the things that attracted Snyder to The Rough-Face Girl, a story from the Algonquin tribe of Lake Ontario, was that a quest requiring wisdom and courage is undertaken by a female protagonist.
"Usually, in mythology and fairy tales, it is young men who go out to answer riddles and slay dragons in order to win their lady's hand in marriage", said Snyder, "I liked the idea of telling a story about a young woman having that same type of vision and fearlessness and determination. I think girls and women still need to see those traits modeled."
Another thing that attracted Snyder was that this story is not the typical Cinderella tale, in which the boy and girl fall in love and are finally united after overcoming confusions and obstacles. "In this story, the Invisible Being does not 'fall in love' with her because she's so beautiful physically. In fact, we know that her face and skin are rough and scarred and her hair is burned from tending the fire. What does he see in her? He will only marry the woman who can see him, who has vision, wisdom. What does Rough-Face Girl see in him? He is rich and powerful, but she doesn't see the superficial things like her sisters do: what people look like or wear. She sees the heart of things, their nature, their truth. She discerns that the essence of the Invisible Being is nature, the Milky Way, the rainbow. And so it’s because of her wisdom and desire for the truth that she is blessed and prospers."
In order to develop the lyrics for the opera, Snyder began researching the Algonquin and related tribes from the Great Lakes and Northeast regions of North America. “The Algonquin and other Indians of the Great Lakes were excellent hunters and fishers who made great use of white birch for their canoes and to cover their wigwams,” said Snyder. “While they didn’t have horses or cultivate corn, they did cultivate vegetables.”
“What this meant for me is that the story takes place in an environment of ancient forests, trails, lakes and canoes,” she continued. “Rough-Face Girl, her sisters and mother had tasks to do like planting and harvesting vegetables, drying fish, gathering berries and firewood, preparing squash and greens and small game for cooking. It seems to me they would have had much time to explore trails in the deep quiet of the forest, observing deer, fox, beavers, owls. Then there are things that the village did together also, like preparing for the hunt, dancing, constructing wigwams, arranging marriages.”
“Unfortunately,” said Snyder, “the Algonquin culture was overshadowed by the great Iroquois nation as well as by the European colonists, so little is left of their stories. However, it’s possible to find insights in the myths, legends, and poetry of related tribes.” While doing research, Snyder found this prayer of the Dakota which became the basis for the opera’s finale in which the village blesses the marriage of Rough-Face Girl and the Invisible Being:
“Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have always been, and before you nothing has been. There is no one to pray to but you. The star nations all over the heavens are yours, and yours are the grasses of the earth.
You are older than all need, older than all pain and prayer. Grandfather, Great Spirit, all over the world the faces of living ones are alike. With tenderness have they come up out of the ground.
Look upon your children, with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, fill us with the light.
Give us the strength to understand and eyes to see.
Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live.
Help us, for without you we are nothing.”
Snyder turned this beautiful song of the Paiute into Rough-Face Girl’s lament when her sisters ridicule the way she looks:
“Now all my singing dreams are gone
But none knows where they are fled
Nor by what trail they have left me.
Return, O dreams of my heart,
And sing in the summer twilight,
By the creek and the almond thicket
And the field that is bordered with lupines!”
Snyder also discovered stories in the Algonquin mythology about Mahtigwess, or the Great Rabbit. Mahtigwess is a trickster, like the trickster Kokopelli of tribes in the American Southwest. Mahtigwess has m’teoulin or great magic. One story tells how Wildcat, who loved to eat rabbit, hunted him for days, with Mahtigwess always running barely a step ahead. Whenever Mahtigwess would get cornered, he was always able to create an illusion that would make Wildcat think he was enjoying great food and hospitality, only to wake up cold, hungry and beaten. In the end, since Wildcat had vowed by his tail to catch and eat the Great Rabbit, Wildcat lost his tail, becoming Bobcat from that time on. In The Rough-Face Girl, Mahtigwess appears, like the Fairy Godmother in the Cinderella story, to give wisdom and guidance to the heroine when she’s in doubt.
The opera was premiered by Mass Theatrica in 2009. The cast for the premier featured Stephanie Mann, soprano, in the leading role; Bethany Tammaro Condon, mezzo-soprano, as her Mother; Angeliki Theoharis, mezzo-soprano, as Medicine Woman (the Invisible Being’s sister); Rebecca Hains, soprano, as Running Deer (Rough-Face Girl’s sister); Susan Craft, mezzo-soprano, as Little Fox (her other sister); and Lara Fox, mezzo-soprano, as Mahtigwess (the Great Rabbit trickster.)
Snyder's music is highly singable and colorful, employing musical themes to identify characters and ideas in the drama. She uses strong rhythmic motifs, drumming, and frequently changing meter to create a piece that dances as well as sings.
Year composed: 2008
Duration: 00:40:00
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Percussion (General), ,2 Soprano soloist(s), ,4 Mezzo-Soprano soloist(s), 6 S, 4 A, 1 Other Wind Instrument(s), 1 Unspecified Keyboard Instrument(s)
Instrumentation notes: Keyboard: either piano or electronic. Flute player also plays a native flute. Percussion: native drums (high and low-pitched), wood block, nature sounds (rustling leaves, forest sounds, wind, etc.)