Q&A: Lady Thi Kinh actress Jensen reflects on opera's premiere

Veronica Jensen was one of two women who played Lady Thi Kinh in the original opera “The Tale of Lady Thi Kihn.” The show made its world premiere February 7.

IDS: What was it like to be a part of a world premiere?

Veronica Jensen: It was really exciting, because it was very liberating being able to create my own idea of the character. But there was also a lot of pressure about creating a new opera. There was a lot of pressure to create something new as opposed to looking at other masters of the opera and using that as a model. It was really fun to take something I’d never done before and make it
my own.

IDS: Did you identify with Thi Kinh at all?

Jensen: Yeah, I did. At first it was hard because she was supposed to be a very ethereal character — very intellectual, very pious. And over time I realized from talking with the director, the composer and the conductor that she was also a very emotional and compassionate person, and I think that the combination of herself, the passionate side and the intellectual side, that helped her get through her hardship, and I connected to both sides of her.

IDS: Was it difficult to say goodbye to your character?

Jensen: I don’t think it is for me. I really gave the character and the music everything I had, and I really feel that by the end, by the performances, I really had something special to give to the audience, and I feel like I did that. I feel that it is a really wonderful opera and that it will have a really good chance of succeeding in the professional world. So yeah, I feel very good about where I left it. It will be with me always, but I can say goodbye for now.

IDS: How did you prepare to portray Thi Kinh?

Jensen: It was really hard developing her character because the director, and also the composer, wanted this to have a little bit of a western concept to it. I had to appeal to a western audience, and what that meant for me was allowing her emotions and her passions to come out more than, per se, her character in Vietnamese theater.  She had an incredible amount of strength, and it’s kind of a different strength than American women would have in this day and age. It had to come from a place of compassion and love — being very forgiving but never weak. I would think that some American women could see her story and think that maybe she was weak, but she was incredibly strong.

IDS: What was your favorite part about performing in the opera itself?
Jensen: My favorite part of the actual performances was when I really started to be able to feel her grief and feel what she was going through in a really hard situation, and because of that, being able to feel like I was really rising above some of the hardest things I’m sure a person has ever gone through. In those times, I really started to experience what her emotions really could’ve been. It was very important for me from the very beginning to create a character that people could really relate to through acting and moving on stage — just as important as the music.