Wakonda's Dream is an English-language opera composed by American Anthony Davis with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa.
It is about a contemporary Ponca family and the spiritual journey of their son, who is deeply connected to a noted chief, Standing Bear, and an 1879 trial he won in a United States court.
Directed by Rhoda Levine, the cast included Eugene Perry, Patrick Kilcoyne, Arnold Rawls, William Ferguson, Kristopher Irmiter, Mara Bonde, Phyllis Pancella, Joe Fitzgerald, Earl Howard and several other opera veterans like Darin Anderson.
The opera is the story of parents Delores (Ponca) and Justin Labelle, and their son Jason, struggling to find their place as American Indians in contemporary society.
Jason feels a ghostly connection to the long-dead Chief Standing Bear, whose legacy is revealed in a choral rendering of the famous 1879 trial.
As Anthony Davis was researching American Indian music and history, he attended the annual Ponca pow-wow in the Niobrara region of Nebraska.
The composer and poet immediately agreed to collaborate at an introductory meeting held in the offices of New York City Opera in December 2002.
He learned much about Native American history when writing a libretto based on events related to the Standing Bear trial.
During the development of Wakonda’s Dream, Levine frequently referred to herself as the "audience advocate," a term she prefers to dramaturge.
"[citation needed]He includes known songs, as well as blues, jazz and gospel-inflected music, and underlying Native American rhythms.
The action takes place on a raked surface surrounded by the chorus and a company of American Indian dancers.
The unmoored world of Justin and his family is a floating raked earthen plain, littered with the detritus of contemporary Native American existence – nature that has been drained of the life and fertility it once held for native people – and filled with the trash of civilization: a broken motorcycle, old tires, crates, abandoned rusty oil drum, etc."