SEATTLE, Wash. — At 15 years old, Tacoma singer-songwriter Lyla Eileen already understands that a song is more than the notes that make it.
Lyla, who is fully blind, creates and performs her own music and uses social media to share both her songs and her advocacy.
But when she visited Seattle Opera earlier this year to see Carmen with her mother and grandparents, part of the performance was missing.
Lyla received an audio-description headset, but she said she soon discovered audio description wasn’t available for that performance.
“They said they didn’t have audio description for that show,” Lyla said. “They said that they only did it for certain shows or certain days.”
Audio description provides narration of visual elements happening onstage, including details about the set, costumes, characters, and their movements.
For Lyla, that information can add an entirely different dimension to a performance.
“It adds everything,” she said. “You can tell what’s going on. You can tell what the set looks like, what the actors look like.”
Lyla was frustrated. And she shared those concerns with the Seattle Opera.
Corrie Yadon, Seattle Opera’s senior manager of patron experience, remembers the teenager getting her attention.
“Oh crap, I’m getting yelled at by a teenager,” Yadon recalled. “We did fail. How can I fix this?”
What began as a frustrating night in a velvet seat would turn into a wake-up call for the opera and an unexpected paid opportunity for Lyla.
Opera employees took Lyla downstairs, where she was able to touch and feel some of the costumes on display.
As Yadon watched, she had an idea.
“I just had this idea of she could be a consultant for us,” Yadon said. “I want this kid to help us.”
There was one problem: Yadon hadn’t cleared the job offer with anyone.
“I didn’t have permission from anyone at the opera, but I kind of offered her a job through her mom,” she said.
Seattle Opera eventually worked through what was required to employ Lyla as a minor and formally brought her on as a paid consultant.
Yadon said it was important that Lyla be compensated for the perspective she was providing.
“Her time is valuable, and I want to make sure that she is paid accordingly,” she said.
Making the full picture accessible
At the opera, what an audience sees can carry almost as much information as what it hears.
Kathleen Trott, Seattle Opera’s costume shop manager, said costumes can quickly tell an audience about a character before the performer ever begins to sing.
“We can easily tell a whole bunch about that performer before they even open their mouth and sing their first aria,” Trott said.
The fabric itself can tell part of that story, she said. Layers of lace and slippery satin create a different character than a heavy velvet fabric that barely moves.
“If we were just there for the performance, then we could just listen to a really beautiful concert,” Trott said. “But we all work together to make this really big picture that’s complete.”
Seattle Opera works to make more of that picture available to blind and low-vision patrons through several accommodations.
Yadon said the organization now has a more robust audio-description program. The opera also offers touch tables where patrons can feel costumes, fabrics and props associated with what they will experience onstage.
Trott said Seattle Opera is in roughly its second full season of trying to make touch tables a regular offering. Some individual productions had offered similar experiences before that.
During Salome, for example, the touch table included a replica of John the Baptist’s head along with grass and other elements connected to the production.
Lyla later attended Salome and said she was able to feel the costumes before the show and listen to audio description during the performance.
“The audio describer was amazing,” Lyla said.
The detailed description allowed her to understand not only what the characters and costumes looked like, she said, but also what surrounded them.
“I could easily picture the set because she gave such a detailed description before the show even began,” Lyla said. “During the show, I knew exactly what was happening.”
‘Everyone should enjoy the opera’
Lyla’s consulting work has also added her perspective to Seattle Opera’s broader conversations about accessibility.
“You never know who is going to be coming to the opera,” Lyla said. “It’s so important to make sure that the accessibility is there for everyone, because everyone should enjoy the opera.”
Yadon said working with Lyla has made her examine assumptions about what the organization is already doing well.
“She’s made me realize that as great as we think we’re doing with accessibility, we still have room to grow,” Yadon said.
For Yadon, the goal is an opera experience that does not always require the audience to adapt to the institution.
“We’re going to meet you where you’re at,” she said. “You don’t have to meet us where we are.”
Seattle Opera says one way it is working toward that goal is through its relaxed performances.
The performance onstage is not changed. Instead, the audience experience includes adaptations intended to make the environment more accessible.
Seattle Opera says relaxed performances are open to all patrons and can be useful for people with disabilities or sensory sensitivities, first-time opera audiences, and anyone looking for a more casual experience.
The opera says its next relaxed performance is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 17, during its holiday show, Gay Apparel.
Lyla is listening, too
Lyla may now have a voice inside Seattle Opera, but she knows hers isn’t the only perspective that matters.
Through TikTok and other social media, she said she has connected with people from different walks of life and with different disabilities.
“The more I advocate about things, the more people I meet that have suggestions and opinions,” Lyla said.
Those conversations sometimes expose her to accessibility challenges she hadn’t considered herself.
“It’s not just about making what I want happen,” Lyla said. “It’s about making what needs to happen, happen.”
For a 15-year-old artist who first got Seattle Opera’s attention by speaking up about what was missing, it is a lesson in how one voice can help make room for others.
Seattle Opera accessibility resources
Seattle Opera provides more information about audio description, accessibility, and other services for patrons on its Accessibility Information page.
More details about relaxed performances and the audience experience are available on Seattle Opera’s Theme Nights at the Opera page.