An opera based on lesser-known suffragist takes the stage at the Oncenter

“Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage,” an opera about the lesser-known women’s rights activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, will premiere at the Oncenter on Sunday.

Composed by Persis Parshall Vehar, the opera revolves around Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, three revolutionaries that played a crucial role in the women’s suffrage movement in central and upstate New York. There is particular focus on Gage and how her role in the movement was overshadowed.

“[Gage] not only supported the women’s right to vote, but she also supported the rights of African-Americans and Native Americans. She had a really wide view of the world,” said Vehar. “I read about her being written out of history by Susan B. Anthony, and I thought this is something that we need in our current times.”

Matilda Joslyn Gage was a women’s suffrage activist and a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association, alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She also co-edited the first three volumes of the six-volume series “History of Woman Suffrage,” according to the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.

The two-hour-long opera, commissioned by the Society for New Music, draws on direct quotes from speeches the women made, as well as quotes from letters they wrote, to create its lyrics.

“These were words once spoken by these women, and they are still there,” said Laura Enslin, a voice instructor at the School of Visual and Performing Arts and the voice of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the opera. “So it’s like a moment in history that happened but you’re reliving it within a context.”

The idea was conceived by Vehar, who has previously composed and produced other operas inspired by historical events, such as “Eleanor Roosevelt.”

“A woman at the Crane School of Music once told me that the demise of the opera lay in the fact that the woman was always the victim,” said Vehar. “So I started writing historical operas that had very strong women in them.”

Sally Roesch Wagner, founder of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, helped the opera group with facts and historical accuracies. She said if Gage were to see the opera herself, she would be humbled and even a little bit uncomfortable that she is the star.

“The thing that would really please her is that the author really centers on her ideas,” Wagner said. “In the end, she would be honored and pleased.”

The opera was planned as part of a series of events to honor the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement in New York. The show is set to premiere at the Oncenter on Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets are available on the Society for New Music’s website.