One sings, the other doesn’t

Mila is an original chamber opera that explores the plight of Hong Kong’s domestic foreign workers through the tensions and relationships within a Hong Kong family—an American husband, his Cantonese wife, their son, and their domestic helper Mila from the Philippines. ASIA SOCIETY

NEW YORK—A significant percentage of the human capital the Philippine government exports to the labor markets of the world is female. Nowhere is this more evident than in Hong Kong, where currently approximately 190,000 Filipinas are employed as household help—nannies, or yayas, for the children of families who can afford to hire them.

Now comes Mila, a chamber opera that examines the life of its eponymous Filipina protagonist. Based on stories of Filipina domestic workers, composed by Hong Kong-based Elie Marshall, with story and libretto by Candace Chong Mui Ngam, Mila examines the lives of a dysfunctional, nuclear upper-class Hong Kong family: a white expat businessman with a mistress, his unhappy Hong Kong wife, a businesswoman as well, and their young son, perpetually worried about his performance at school. Mila is the thirteenth nanny hired by the couple to take care of their son. The number 13 was perhaps chosen to suggest misfortune, but clearly the high turnover indicates something amiss with the family.

Mila herself has a troubled familial history and this may be why she seems to be the only adult who frets over how unhappy the boy is. She worries that he may jump off their high-rise balcony straight into the pool below—a foreshadowing of a tragedy but not what the audience expects. Needing to balance her instinctive maternal instincts with maintaining a professional demeanor so necessary for her work, she has the husband defend her against the wife’s belittling suspicion that Mila isn’t right for the task. That suspicion masks the wife’s own doubts about her mothering or lack of it.

Joseph Beutel as the husband; Amanda Li as the wife; Joanne Shao as the son; and Stefanie Quintin as Mila, are all gifted performers. A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Music, Ms. Quintin has a powerful voice that belies her petite frame. With its minimalist approach Mila offers a subtle character study, with flashes of droll humor, and may be the first trilingual opera sung in English, Cantonese, and Tagalog.

Across town from the Angel Orensanz Center, where the opera was staged, was yet another tale of a beleaguered Filipina. The Courtroom is a re-enactment of actual deportation proceedings, produced by Waterwell, and staged at Cooper Union’s historic Great Hall. The respondent and potential deportee is Elizabeth Keathley, a Filipina married to an American, John Keathley, from all accounts a happy union. She was accused of committing a felony by voting even though she couldn’t, being at that point still a green-card holder—a predicament brought on when she inadvertently signs a voter-registration card while applying for a driver’s license.

Though the case dragged on for three years, there was a happy ending for Elizabeth, with the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissing the case against her. The conclusion of the dramatization was the citizenship swearing in, by Judge Denny Chin, on September 20, 2017. The Chinese-American judge had his own story; before having the would-be citizens pledge allegiance to the United States, Chin recounted his own family’s immigrant story, going back to the tireless efforts of his Chinese grandfather to gain legal status in the country. The re-enactment ends with the judge asking the audience (presumed to be the would-be citizens) to stand and be sworn in as citizens.

Though I didn’t, most of the audience did stand, and swore allegiance to the United States of America. Far from being hokey, it was quite moving, reminding us that, despite the current administration’s racist and anti-immigrant policies, this nation is one of immigrants.

The actors all read from the transcripts. Reading Elizabeth’s testimony was Kristin Villanueva, an accomplished thespian whom I know. I was curious as to how she prepared for this role. Here is an edited transcript of our brief interview, conducted via e-mail:

LHF: Was there an audio transcript? I was curious as to how you decided on the particular Pinoy accent you used.

KV: There was no audio transcript. I listened to Filipino news, interviews with folks from Visayas and Mindanao. The director and I thought to use a particularly thick accent.

LHF: Did you or any of the cast meet the husband and wife?

KV: They came earlier this year to meet our company but I was not at the meet and greet. I have spoken with Elizabeth on the phone.

LHF: How did inhabiting that role affect you?

KV: A number of things came up unexpectedly. I came to the US at 15 and made a decision to adapt as fast as I could. I didn’t know back then that that was a coping mechanism. I also tried to hide my Tagalog accent for fear of sounding funny or dumb.

All of these things and other personal stuff came up while inhabiting the role. Sitting with the audience [the hall stood in for the courtroom] didn’t help either. But eventually as the run went on,  I settled in with the discomfort and learned to use it as Elizabeth’s discomfort in her own given circumstances. Copyright L.H.Francia 2019