Nearly a century ago, a 12-year-old Filipina named Angeles Monrayo began a diary that detailed her immigrant family’s labor experience in Hawaii, their move to the Bay Area, and the racism, poverty and sexism they encountered in the 1920s. The diary would later become “Tomorrow’s Memories: A Diary, 1924-1928,” a book edited by Monrayo’s daughter Rizaline Raymundo that offers a unique glimpse into the daily lives of working-class Filipinos of that time.

Now Monrayo’s words come to life in “Tomorrow’s Memories: A Little Manila Diary,” a modern opera commissioned by the San Francisco Girls Chorus and composed by Matthew Welch, on the Magic Theatre stage Friday-Sunday, June 16-18.

The Girls Chorus plans to cap off its season with the long-awaited world premiere of the libretto, led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe and featuring Filipino artists such as stage director Sean San José and guitarist Florante Aguilar, as well as Japanese multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii.

Welch, who previously worked on “And Here We Are,” an opera based on his family’s memoir and internment camp incarceration in Manila and Baguio, was approached by the Girls Chorus to create a libretto from Monrayo’s journal. Sainte-Agathe was in search of a project for the Girls Chorus when Lisa Bielawa, a composer and the Girls Chorus’ former artistic director, came across Monrayo’s book in her project research.

Sainte-Agathe was immediately drawn by the strength of Monrayo’s voice and the opportunity to show Monrayo’s four-year growth through the Girls Chorus. Welch also “saw the potential of this type of very intimate sharing” with “Tomorrow’s Memories.”

“洛杉矶的话跳页,”他said.

Welch was particularly inspired by Monrayo’s love of music, the way his own family connected with opera during a time of difficulty. Monrayo writes about songs both in what she hears around her, but also what she actively sings by herself and with friends.

“That was a thread that kind of kept the forward momentum as a place of healing,” he said. “Many of the songs she names appear, in a digested way, within the musical fabric, and also propel the underlying narrative of both Angeles’ journey through land and time.”

For the stage adaptation, Welch used the Girls Chorus’ talent to highlight choral music’s role in many sectors of Filipino music. He incorporated what he calls “mouth music,” often used in Celtic music, as a way for the Girls Chorus to sing a survey of different forms of Filipino music in “an onomatopoeic way.”

The work was a perfect fit for the group, whose singers range from 4 to 18 years old.

“I found right away the resonance between this young woman, who was dealing with so many things, and our singers who are about the same age,” said Sainte-Agathe. “(Monrayo)’s almost like a role model for them because despite all the difficulties, she’s so powerful and strong.”

But like many live performances, bringing the libretto to the stage has been a challenge due to COVID-related struggles.

Initially, many of the singers had to learn the music remotely. Adea Hansen-Whistler, 17, a Premier Ensemble singer within the chorus, recalled virtually connecting with fellow singers outside of rehearsals and practicing scenes from “Tomorrow’s Memories” over Zoom.

“It was difficult, but I think we did a really good job of talking about the music we were singing,” said the 17-year-old.

Then last summer, days before the show was to premiere in June, several performers contracted the coronavirus, forcing the Girls Chorus to cancel the production. While the setback was a disappointment, it also presented an opportunity, San Jose noted.

“We got another chance to look at it and sit with it for a year,” he said. “You rarely get this chance.”

During that time, the team reframed its approach to the opera, adding more cultural and historical context into the storytelling.

“It’s so exciting because we feel like we spent these years getting into the gut and the heart of what the story is, and now we have this vantage point where we can look back and go, ‘Oh, now let’s place them oddly outside of it,’ ” San Jose said.

The chorus also adapted. During the pandemic, the chorus sang excerpts from the opera at virtual performances and started a Community Book Club to ignite a conversation about Monrayo’s diary writings.

For Sainte-Agathe, working on the libretto with the Girls Chorus, which features 10 new singers this year, feels like a new project.

“即使音乐是相同的,和h的方法ow we got to present it and how we work with the singers on it is different,” she said of the show, which has been nearly five years in the making. “It’s a new adventure, and that’s what creativity is about.”

Karen Robes Meeks is a freelance writer.