WHEN A REAL-LIFE MURDER LEADS TO MUSIC
“Songs for Murdered Sisters” begins in tragedy.
In September 2015, Nathalie Warmerdam was slain by an abusive former boyfriend who had killed two other exes mere hours before. The news shook the closeknit county in eastern Ontario, where the victims had lived, and shone a harsh spotlight on domestic violence, especially in Canada’s rural communities.
But for Joshua Hopkins, Warmerdam’s brother and an acclaimed operatic baritone, the murders hit especially close to home. Feeling numb and helpless at the loss of his sister, he talked it over with his wife, who agreed that “the best way to honor her and the two other women would be through art,” he says.
Hopkins also decided to use his tribute as a platform to bring awareness to gender-based violence. (Warmerdam’s killer, now serving a life sentence, had previously been arrested and convicted several times on assault-related charges; he was on probation at the time of the murders.) To help bring the project to fruition, Hopkins turned to composer Jake Heggie, whose “Dead Man Walking” (2000) ranks among the most-performed modern operas.
Hopkins trained at HGO Studio and has called Houston home for many years. While still studying there, he covered a lead role in Heggie’s “The End of the Affair”; later, Heggie created the role of Harry Bailey for him in HGO’s 2016 premiere of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The two saw their new project as a song cycle. For the text, they turned to Margaret Atwood, one of Canada’s preeminent literary figures — and an opera fan who, by sheer luck, had recently seen Hopkins perform in a Toronto production of “The Magic Flute.”
The baritone and the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” met while both were appearing at the Glimmerglass summer festival in upstate New York. Atwood seemed interested but remained cagey. As Heggie recalls, a long series of quasi negotiations commenced, in which Atwood would say, “I’m not saying I’m doing it, but …” and offer a few more spot-on suggestions.
Eventually, “she sent the eight texts, the eight poems, exactly as written — flawless, perfect, and so moving and emotional,” says Heggie. “Josh called me and said, ‘Well, I guess she’s doing it.’ It’s the first time I’ve ever worked with someone where their saying yes to the project was to deliver the project.”
For Hopkins, Atwood’s words and Heggie’s music have helped to crystallize the many emotions surrounding his sister’s murder. He likens the experience to walking through a portal.
“All of (those) emotions I would say, generally, have been lying under the surface, but not ready to come out,” he says. “By experiencing this project, and living through the artistry of Jake and Margaret, it has helped release those emotions. I feel like I have lived them now.”
Filmed last fall and directed by James Niebuhr, “Songs for Murdered Sisters” premieres Feb. 19 through HGO Digital; the Pentatone label will release a companion album on March 5, three days before International Women’s Day. According to Hopkins, its eight songs are especially apt at illustrating the nonlinear nature of grief.
“The five stages of grief aren’t ‘OK, now you will go through denial, and then after that you will go through acceptance, and then you will go through bargaining,’ he says. “You can have any of those emotions crop up at any time, and sometimes simultaneously. I really feel that the emotional journey that I go through with this piece reflects that.”
“The risk with something this personal is that you make it so personal that nobody else is allowed in, and that was not the goal for Josh, for me, or for Margaret,” adds Heggie. “It was to make it very personal and specific, yet open to people so they could bring their own journeys to the piece.”
To that end, Hopkins is currently partnering with the Canadian nonprofit White Ribbon to spearhead a #WhiteRibbonSisters social-media campaign, hoping to inspire 10,000 men to take the White Ribbon Pledge, a vow “never to commit, condone, or remain silent about all forms of genderbased violence.”
“It’s time for men to own their responsibility in helping to end violence against women,” he says. “And I think it’s only through that that we can help eliminate the horrific tragedy that took place in my family.”