COVER STORY
Givonna Joseph of OperaCréole Celebrates the Operatic History of Our Great City Photos by Twirl Photography
By Mari Walker
The global pandemic made huge impacts on Givonna Joseph’s life in 2020. Restrictions hit hard for OperaCréole, the organization she founded and runs with her daughter, Aria Mason. When the pandemic struck, elaborate plans for a season culminating in the nonprofit’s 10th anniversary were all shut down.
never been a person who has said there’s only one way to do something, and a lot of that comes from my mom,” Mason says. “She’s always made a lane for herself. And growing up with that kind of example has been invaluable for me.”
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Joseph serves as OperaCréole’s director, and Mason is its production director. The nonprofit is dedicated to performing works by composers of African descent, especially from 19th century New Orleans free people of color.
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Luckily, the pandemic brought a personal silver lining. Mason and husband Henri Mason-Folse welcomed baby Amara Mason-Folse three weeks into the spring 2020 shutdown, and with the birth of her granddaughter, Joseph became “Mamère,” her favorite role to date.
Creating Her Lane in the Big Easy
Born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, operatic sounds have filled Joseph’s entire life. “I started singing before I could get sentences out,” she says. Her parents exposed her to all kinds of music in her early years, and her career as a mezzo-soprano was sparked when she followed voice teacher Charles Paddock to Loyola University. “He’s the one who planted the bug, so to speak,” Joseph says. “He made me believe that it was something I could do.” In developing her career, Joseph has passed down lessons to her daughter, whom she named Aria as a way of calling something into existence. Like her mother, Mason is a successful mezzo-soprano. “I’ve
As a native New Orleanian, Joseph is deeply committed to the city’s culture. OperaCréole shares the history of opera in New Orleans, specifically the contributions of Black opera creators over hundreds of years. “We wanted to just go where people were and let them hear our voices and begin to tell the stories of who we really are,” Joseph says. Joseph’s and Mason’s strengths have balanced each other out while bringing operas to life, many of which were previously unknown to audiences. “Often, the shows we do have no guidebook,” Mason says. “Half the time, there aren’t even stage notes. If the show’s been performed at all, it was once a hundred years ago, so we’re really having to create something out of nothing.”
Uncovering Connections Between Jazz and Opera
New Orleans is known for jazz and nurturing the development of that art. Part of OperaCréole’s work has been to bring to light the connections between opera and the birth of jazz, two worlds often much too separated but intricately linked. OperaCréole has been part of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for nearly 10 years, performing each year in the kids’ tent, projects the mother-daughter duo craft artistically together. The organization plans to be part of Jazz Fest’s return.
