Bright Shiny Things Releases MISSING, an Opera on the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

BRIGHT SHINY THINGS RELEASES MISSING, AN OPERA THAT CONFRONTS THE CRISIS OF MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS BY LIBRETTIST MARIE CLEMENTS AND COMPOSER BRIAN CURRENT IN COLLABORATION WITH ARTISTS OF THE OPERA MISSING (ATOM)

“Missing is an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking work, and a milestone for the opera world."

– Roberta Staley, The Whole Note

“Missing is a piece that at once fills your heart and tugs it down through your gut."

– Shayli Robinson, Showbill

NEW YORK, NY–On July 11, 2025, Bright Shiny Things releases MISSING [BSTC-0221], an opera by librettist Marie Clements and composer Brian Current in collaboration with Artists of the Opera Missing (ATOM). Starring sopranos Cait Wood and Melody Courage, mezzo-sopranos Andrea Ludwig, Marion Newman, and Michelle Lafferty; tenor Asitha Tennekoon and baritone Evan Korbut; the opera confronts the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. MISSING incorporates Gitxsan language and cultural traditions, moving through grief, memory, and justice, and ensuring these voices continue to be heard. The album also features the Continuum Ensemble – a major presence in the new music world for 40 years – under the baton of ATOM member Timothy Long. MISSING is available for pre-order here: https://www.brightshiny.ninja/missing

Developed over the course of two and a half years as a co-commission and co-production of City Opera Vancouver and Pacific Opera Victoria, MISSING was created to confront the ongoing crisis of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). The opera gives a voice to the untold stories of the Indigenous women, families, and communities affected by this national tragedy. More than half the cast and crew are of Indigenous background, yet as librettist Marie Clements – herself of Métis/Dene heritage – comments: “To me and to so many other people, this is not an Indigenous issue; it’s a human issue. As human beings we have a responsibility to end this, and so we’re asking for people to open their hearts, to be able to comprehend on an emotional level what’s really happening.”

MISSING was premiered in November 2017 at City Opera Vancouver and toured by Pacific Opera Victoria in British Columbia and Saskatchewan in 2019. In 2023 a new production was mounted by Anchorage Opera, Alaska. Set in Vancouver and along the Highway of Tears, the story follows Ava sung by soprano Cait Wood, a young woman who sees the spirit of a lost Indigenous girl – soprano Melody Courage. After being involved in a car accident, Ava finds herself transformed by the encounter. Marion Newman, a Kwagiulth and Sto´:lo¯ First Nations mezzo-soprano, the host of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, and a key player in the development of MISSING sings the role of Dr. Wilson, a guest lecturer on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada at Ava’s law school. Newman states: “As an Indigenous woman whose family works constantly to protect, this opera offers an empowering way to have meaningful conversation with audience members and colleagues.”

Conductor and Musical Director Timothy Long, involved in the development of MISSING has found working on the opera to be a catalyst that reaches beyond the confines of the piece: “Being a Muscogee/Choctaw man, I have often felt alone in this musical world, but MISSING revealed the purpose of my path. The victims and the families looked like my family and me. It pivoted my life trajectory towards representing all Indigenous people.”

Guggenheim Fellowship and Juno Award-winning composer Brian Current joined the project after the libretto was completed by Marie Clements, and composed the music in close partnership with the cast and cultural advisors. Scenes were built from texts and melodies gifted to the creative team by Gitxsan language consultant Vincent Gogag, who played an essential role in ensuring the rhythms and tonal colors of Gitxsan speech were authentically woven into the music. The first performance of each production has been reserved for the families of the victims whose feedback has been nothing short of heartbreaking as Current acknowledges: “Working on MISSING alongside Indigenous artists and listening to families of the missing quietly shifted how I see the world. I hope this recording invites the same kind of awakening.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

TIMOTHY LONG is a distinguished conductor, pianist, and composer, serving as Artistic and Music Director of Opera at the Eastman School of Music and an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. A citizen of the Muscogee Nation and the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, with matrilineal Choctaw heritage, he is a passionate advocate for Indigenous artists. His work spans symphonic and operatic conducting, including engagements with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and many others. In 2024, he launched The North American Indigenous Songbook, commissioning new works by Indigenous composers to expand the vocal repertoire. A dedicated mentor and leader, he is also president of The Plimpton Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors for OPERA America, and a 2024 inductee into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.

MARIE CLEMENTS is a Métis/Dene filmmaker, writer, and director known for her groundbreaking work in film, TV, radio, and live performance. She is the founder of MCM, a production company dedicated to Indigenous and intercultural storytelling. Her award-winning films have screened internationally at Cannes, TIFF, MOMA, VIFF, and imagineNATIVE. Her feature Red Snow won multiple awards, including Most Popular Canadian Feature at VIFF and Best Director at the American Indian Film Festival. Her music documentary The Road Forward premiered at Hot Docs, screened at over 300 venues, and won numerous accolades. Marie’s latest projects include the NFB documentary Lay Down Your Heart and the feature drama Bones of Crows for CBC, Radio-Canada, and APTN. She has been recognized by the Writers Guild, Directors Guild, and received the WFF Women on Top Award and Telefilm Canada Birks Diamond Tribute to Women in Film.

BRIAN CURRENT, composer, studied music at McGill University and UC Berkeley. His music, lauded and broadcast in over 35 countries, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music (USA), the Premio Fedora (Italy) for Chamber Opera, and the Selected Work (under 30) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Current's pieces have been programmed by all major symphony orchestras in Canada and by dozens of professional orchestras, ensembles, and opera companies worldwide. Current is also an in-demand conductor and regularly leads orchestral programs of contemporary music, having championed over 100 works by contemporary composers. Since 2021, he has been Artistic Director and Conductor of New Music Concerts of Toronto and, since 2007, the director of the New Music Ensemble of The Glenn School at The Royal Conservatory. In 2016, Current won the inaugural Azrieli Commissioning Competition, the largest of its kind in Canada and one of the largest in the world. In 2018, his Shout, Sisyphus, Flock won the Jules-Leger Prize for New Chamber Music.