A new Canadian chamber opera based on the life of the late writer, poet and actress Pauline Johnson will have its world premiere in Vancouver in two years.

Pauline was written by Margaret Atwood with music composed by Christos Hatzis. It is the first commission ever undertaken by City Opera Vancouver, which announced the project in Vancouver on Tuesday.

Pauline E. Johnson was a rivetting performer, travelling Europe and North America to recite her own poetry. (Library and Archives Canada)

The production was written as a signature role for B.C.-born mezzo-soprano Judith Forst, who has agreed to play the title role in the new opera.

Atwood, a great admirer of Johnson, says it's about time the poet was restored to her rightful place in Canada's literary history.

For decades, her poetry, which she performed in public in First Nations dress, was considered out of fashion.

"She was captivating. She had a very forceful stage presence," Atwood said in an interview with CBC News.

"She would do half of [her performance] reciting her native motif poems which were pretty violent — not the sort of thing you could have gotten away with as a decorous Victorian gentlewoman. So that allowed her to really let go."

For the second half, she would wear a ball gown, reciting her more conventional, English-style poetry.

Margaret Atwood, shown in June 2006, has written the libretto for an opera about Pauline Johnson, using Johnson's own poetry.
(Canadian Press)

Johnson, born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ont., was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an English Quaker woman. She wrote and performed to support herself, touring the U.S., Britain and Canada from 1892-1910.

Johnson's poems and far-from-conventional life lend themselves naturally to an operatic treatment, Atwood said.

"It's very helpful that Pauline Johnson was a poet, and we've been able to take some of her actual poems and put them in as arias. That is her voice." 

The music of the poetry made it easier to write accompaniment, said Hatzis, who was chosen from more than 30 contenders to write the music for Pauline.

"My first concern is to actually discover the music inside the text, instead of just imposing it on it," he said.

"It's called prosody, and prosody basically means that it's the relationship of the pitch inflections and the rhythms that poetic language in particular already contains within itself. "

Forst paid tribute to the result, saying Atwood seems to understand what it means to write words that have to be sung.

Atwood has written to music for last year's production of the Penelopiad. Her novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was converted into an opera by the Danish Opera Society.

Fans still remember Johnson

Johnson died of breast cancer 95 years ago this month at age 52, in agonizing pain, in a room in Vancouver's West End.

Her funeral attracted thousands into the streets and her ashes were buried somewhere in Stanley Park. People still leave feathers, driftwood and other offerings on her monument.

The tragedy of her early death, and the secrets of her loves and personality that went to the grave with her, lend themselves to opera, Forst said.

"We are dealing with her death, her pain, her relationship with her sister — and these are very operatic subjects. You can sing about this," she said.

"To see where we take her in this last part of her life, and her reflections on what's gone on before, is going to be, I think, very exciting."

City Opera Vancouver hopes to stage the world premiere in the 100-year-old Pantages Theatre in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside during January or February 2010. Plans are in the works to renovate the now-derelict theatre.

The production of Pauline will cost about $400,000.