A diverse team of mainly Alaska Native talent spent nearly nine years building the operatic version of a historic battle in the early 1800s. “Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles”, a combination of music, writing, anthropology, and culture, is now on stage in Juneau, offering audiences a Tlingit perspective that is frequently dismissed in historical accounts. The presentation in the high art of opera adds a uniquely dramatic setting to a conflict that forever defined commerce, colonization and Tlingit autonomy in Alaska. We’ll hear from some of the talent behind the opera as well as the events from more than 200 years ago that inspired it.