O Columbia
Spears/Vavrek
O COLUMBIA A new chamber opera Music by Gregory Spears / Libretto by Royce Vavrek For HGOco Page 1
O Columbia
Spears/Vavrek
Settings: On the Atlantic Ocean; Houston, Texas; On the Columbia Space Shuttle; A Future Frontier
Characters: Becca, A Houston teenager
Lady Columbia, The personification
Sir Walter Raleigh,
16
th
Century British Explorer
Ensemble Of astronauts and students
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O Columbia
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PROLOGUE BECCA, a girl in Houston, Texas, pulls out a large record from a piano bench. SHE pulls it from its sleeve, revealing a gold record that catches the light. BECCA Imagine. Imagine this was a record That contained the sounds, The science, The music, A document of life on earth. Imagine. Imagine this was a record Of exploration, A symbol of hundreds of years Of discovery. I will grow up And space will be mine. I will float around the earth, Looking down on the world And see the sphere That has held Every idea, Every philosophy, Every second of Every child’s dream To go beyond the beyond. Imagine. Imagine this was a record Shot into space A golden museum Of our explorers And our civilization. Imagine, And listen. BECCA places the record on a record player. She places the needle at the beginning. Just record crackle. Suddenly music pours out of the record player. Surprised by the music she hears, BECCA takes the needle off the record. The music stops abruptly.
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PART I BECCA starts the record again and Sir Walter RALEIGH, a dandy man in his early-to-mid 30s, appears on the bow of a ship smoking from a long, two to three-foot ornate pipe. It is in the middle of the night, the sky ablaze with starlight. An ENSEMBLE of students sings, their song weaving around RALEIGH’s monologue… RALEIGH When a white-faced queen commands: “Raleigh, go find gold! Go and wave the flag of England!” He takes up her challenge, BECCA Wave the flag of England! STUDENTS Wave the flag of England! RALEIGH Eldorado! BECCA AND STUDENTS Beat the Spanish! STUDENTS Keep her favor! Go! Find gold! RALEIGH AND STUDENTS Wave, wave the flag of England! RALEIGH With the hope that my discoveries Will allow a hundred more. RALEIGH, BECCA AND STUDENTS Keep her favor. Go! Find gold! Page 4
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RALEIGH The new world… RALEIGH AND STUDENTS Will give way… Soon the new world will give way to newer worlds. Soon it will feel familiar. STUDENTS Go! Find gold! And when familiar… RALEIGH We will find another vector… RALEIGH AND STUDENTS … in which to travel. Soon! RALEIGH It will feel familiar. BECCA And when familiar. BECCA AND RALEIGH Soon it will feel familiar. STUDENTS And when familiar, RALEIGH AND STUDENTS Soon! Soon! STUDENTS And when familiar, Soon! RALEIGH And when familiar… STUDENTS Page 5
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Could Walter Raleigh dare to dream? RALEIGH Soon it will seem familiar. I dream of a vertical voyage. STUDENTS Could Walter Raleigh dare to dream of worlds? Could Walter Raleigh dream of a dream? Dream of a vertical voyage. RALEIGH AND STUDENTS Perhaps the new world Breeds a flock of wild birds With saddled backs And beaks to bridle. STUDENTS Could Walter dare to dream? RALEIGH Would we could fly and find a new vector in which to travel. STUDENTS Vertical voyage. A vertical voyage. Of a vertical voyage. BECCA Perhaps the idea of space is best left to others. RALEIGH Would we could fly Nabbing stars by the fistful. STUDENTS Would we could fly! RALEIGH Until we have access to the sky I set my sights on the horizon. STUDENTS On the horizon. RALEIGH Page 6
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And appeal to the children a hundred years hence. RALEIGH AND STUDENTS To pick up my mantel and dream. To dream from this new vantage. RALEIGH AND STUDENTS When a white-faced queen commands: Go! Find gold! Wave the flag of England! He takes up her challenge. Go find Eldorado! RALEIGH Go! Go! And‌ BECCA AND STUDENTS Keep her favor! RALEIGH That my discoveries allow a hundred more. STUDENTS Soon the new world will give way to newer worlds. BECCA Inside your closed eyelids Paint a picture of A man who pointed the bow of his ship Towards the New World, And what he hoped to find. He went to wander, To search, To find, All alone. All alone he sits at midnight, To search, To find. A man and the ocean and the spirit of Columbia. Lady Columbia. Page 7
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Walter Raleigh all alone He went to wander with hopes of settlement… BECCA AND STUDENTS A race to place European flags On undeveloped soil. STUDENTS America created in a race To conquer, To build. To build a new continent. O Lady Columbia, Tell us a story. STUDENTS AND BECCA Tell us a story of the ships that sailed With hopes of exploration. BECCA Sir Walter Raleigh: Aristocrat, A poet, An explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh A dandy with a pipe. Under the same stars. A poet, An explorer. RALEIGH The mural of stars, Each in their bed of blackness. The mural of stars, My midnight compass. Restless I stand, at midnight. RALEIGH In the steps of Columbus, In the steps of Columbia with Columbia and the night sky… (indulging in his pipe) Page 8
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I sit in constant conversation. The bow is mine at midnight. STUDENTS Measure the land and range the realms westward. Measure the land and build, Build a history. Measure the land. Tell us of the frontiers, Raleigh. RALEIGH Company makes me… Anxious. STUDENTS Of yesterday Of tomorrow’s tomorrows A vast promise, A new colony RALEIGH The promise of gold unfulfilled. Oh, but what we did find: A promise, Land to be tamed; Land to be claimed; Measure the land A colony, a country. STUDENTS Wild, empty, new. RALEIGH Build a new history. STUDENTS Build a new country A vast promise. The heart of America, Bloodlines rich with frontier spirit. RALEIGH The new world they called it. Page 9
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Yes, wild, new. BECCA But can the wilds be called new? Is there anything as old as a river? As a forest grown through nature’s cycles? As a mountain carved by God’s hands? Why did Walter Raleigh risk his life And the lives of many men To seek what may or may not be? STUDENTS (intoned, answering his question) Roanoke. RALEIGH I have lived one hundred lives. I have lost so many more. BECCA AND STUDENTS Roanoke. RALEIGH I have waved at ships destined for the new world. BECCA Great hope. RALEIGH Great hope met with great failure.. Roanoke, my colony. Roanoke, a whole colony washed away. A whole colony… Great hope. STUDENTS Washed away. RALEIGH Destined for the New World. A whole colony washed away. STUDENTS Roanoke met with great failure. RALEIGH Page 10
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Though I press on… RALEIGH AND BECCA With the hope that these souls Did not vanish in vain. A whole colony washed away. RALEIGH A great anchor drags behind. RALEIGH, BECCA AND STUDENTS With the ghosts of those lost… RALEIGH I stand in constant conversation. With the hope… BECCA … in hope that those souls did not vanish in vain. RALEIGH AND BECCA I stand in constant conversation. With the ghosts of those lost I stand in constant conversation. BECCA (intoned) Comes meus fuit in illo miserrimo tempore. My companion at the most miserable time. It could apply to the stars. Walter Raleigh responsible. STUDENTS (reciting an excerpt from Richard Blackmore’s “The Creation”) Yet this mighty system which contains so many worlds. Such vast, ethereal plains, But one of thousands Which compose the whole. Perhaps as glorious and of worlds so full.
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PART II Houston, January 31st, 2003 It is the evening before the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, BECCA, stretches out on the grass outside of her Houston, Texas home, looking up at the sky. ASTRONAUT A girl lays sleepless in her bed Counting stars that hover above her head. BECCA Lady Columbia, Tell us your story, A story of shuttles. STUDENTS O Columbia: Vertical voyages Of new frontiers. BECCA To the moon arrived, But further strived. ASTRONAUT What began as a race… STUDENTS Quickly defined so many childhoods. BECCA As I watch the bright stars shining, I think of the key To the universes and the future. As I watch the bright stars shining… STUDENTS Shining! BECCA But what if tonight the stars choose Page 12
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to dance, blink, or swirl… STUDENTS But what if tonight? BECCA What if tonight the stars choose to dance, blink or swirl… STUDENTS Blink or swirl! BECCA AND STUDENTS Or better yet rearrange themselves? STUDENTS Starlight! BECCA A galaxy Just out of arm’s length. A galaxy Just out of grasp. Some say it’s too far. Beyond my grasp. STUDENTS It’s too far. Much too far. What started as a space race defined so many childhoods. BECCA A galaxy… BECCA AND STUDENTS Just out of arms length. BECCA To my third-grade class I proudly revealed: I wanted to be an astronaut… STUDENTS Page 13
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An astronaut! Starlight, starlight. BECCA A dream shared by two boys: GIRLS One will grow up to raise cattle, The other will grow up to raise children. (the boys leave dejectedly) BECCA AND STUDENTS I will grow up And space will be mine. A galaxy just out of arms length. Starlight, starlight. (A man representing the girl’s GRANDFATHER stands by an old record player.) In my grandfather’s piano bench, Scattered about the Haydn and Brahms, were old issues of English space magazines, and golden records where lovers sing… GRANDFATHER …on a starlit night with full moon. BECCA Dropping the needle carefully: GRANDFATHER O Luna Lucente… BECCA He smiled when I told him: I wanted to be an astronaut. Boys didn’t dare talk to me About science fiction, Or science fact, I was classroom authority: Did you know that Neptune has fourteen moons? Did you know that Jupiter has the shortest day? Page 14
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To my seventh-grade class I proudly revealed: I want to be circle the earth. O Luna Lucente… GIRLS She wants to circle the earth. Don’t you know its dangerous? BECCA I want to circle the earth. Did you know that Venus has no known satellites? Of course I know it’s dangerous. To my ninth grade class I proudly revealed: I still want to circle the earth. Boys didn’t dare talk to me about science fiction, Or science fact, I was the classroom authority. STUDENTS Classroom authority. (BECCA picks up a two-way radio transmitter to communicate to the ASTRONAUT.) BECCA O Columbia, do you read me? STUDENTS Do you read me? BECCA Becca from Houston. (An ASTRONAUT appears floating above the stage.) ASTRONAUT Copy that, Becca from Houston. BECCA Who dreams of joining you in space… Columbia, Have you completed your mission? Page 15
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ASTRONAUT Mission completed. Crew asleep. BECCA What do you see? But what do you see? ASTRONAUT Africa. All is quiet. (The record has reached its end, all is quiet.) BECCA What is my mission? ASTRONAUT Your mission, in two parts: Pattern formation during ice crystal growth. Effect of microgravity. In-situ observation. Your mission’s second part: To see the earth from a different vantage And find a new world. BECCA A future mission. ASTRONAUT Space is infinite. BECCA One sphere holds every man-made problem. ASTRONAUT A universe of possibilities. And answers. Becca from Houston, What are your questions? BECCA Will we go to Mars? Will we go further? What is holding us back? Page 16
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ASTRONAUT Logistics. Money. Mars is the goal. Beyond is the next. Are you ready to accept your mission? BECCA Columbia, do you read me? I accept my mission. ASTRONAUT Your mission is to go further than any man or woman. Your mission is wormholes. Your mission is unknown. Your mission is the new worlds. BECCA Tell me about your mission. (BECCA restarts the record player.) ASTRONAUT AND BECCA Sixteen days, Eighty experiments, A cargo of human ingenuity… A chemical garden, Atmospheric Aerosols, Nematode worms in microgravity. Mission completed. Hypothesis confirmed or denied. STUDENTS Hypothesis confirmed or denied. ASTRONAUT Becca from Houston… Are you ready to accept your mission? BECCA At a moment’s notice. (The ASTRONAUT extends her hand. BECCA ascends and seats herself next to the astronaut.)
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The moment has come. BECCA The moment has come. I have butterflies in my stomach. ASTRONAUT Tomorrow we come home. STUDENTS O Columbia. (BECCA and the ASTRONAUT enjoy their vantage. The television flickers on, at first producing only static, but then an image emerges… a news broadcast.) ANNOUNCER / CHORUS … lost communication with the shuttle … … approximately 9 o’clock eastern time … … over the north east corner of Texas… … the flight dynamic team continues to try to make contact … … a methodical approach… … Should have been a clock-work landing… … “Columbia Houston we see your tyre pressure messages and we did not copy your last” … … total loss of communication… … multiple targets… … All seven astronauts have perished … CHORUS (continued, but not as the television announcer) Further than our furthest reaches. She waits for them. (from Edward Young’s “Night Thoughts”) How distant some of these nocturnal suns! So distant, (says the sage) 'twere not absurd To doubt, if beams set out at nature's birth, Are not yet arrived at this so foreign world; Though nothing half so rapid as their flight. Further than our furthest reaches She waits for them. BECCA Page 18
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(in front of the TV, crying) Columbia, do you read me? Columbia, do you read me? Columbia, do you read me? STUDENTS My stomach twists, My body aches My heart bleeds out At the television news. BECCA Columbia, do you read me? STUDENTS Beyond their grasp. Beyond their reach. BECCA I will orbit the earth. I will. I will. STUDENTS Tis not absurd to doubt‌ She will feel the Martian soil. She will orbit the earth. She will. She will. She will.
PART III: A New Frontier / New Columbia The chorus becomes the press, busy taking photos of three astronauts. This movement should feel like a swirl of questions,
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CHORUS (evolving from students into press) Columbia, tell us a story Of three astronauts centuries hence, All on far away missions. (Here! Here! Here! Here!) BECCA Are you prepared? ASTRONAUT 1 (RALEIGH) I am leaving behind my wife and two children. PRESS Further! ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS I understand the risks involved. ASTRONAUT 1 (RALEIGH) I’m under no delusions. The path has proved arduous. ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS A mission to go further Than anyone. Supported by fifty two countries… Unprecedented! This is a global mission. When you consider This is a global mission, Centuries hence. ASTRONAUT 1 (RALEIGH) I must go further. Yes we must go further. ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS This is a global mission. BECCA (addressing the sopranos) Can you talk to the purpose of this mission? Is it to establish a new colony? Have we destroyed our planet?
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ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS We do hope to find a planet that supports human life. BECCA Will laws be put into place in prevention? Or are we doomed to ruin that planet too? ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS We must first make the discovery. BECCA But… But… But… ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS O Columbia, tell us a story Of three astronauts centuries hence. BECCA Will laws be put into place in prevention? Or are we doomed to ruin that planet too? ASTRONAUT (RALEIGH) Pick up our mantle and dream of a new… ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS … and dream of a new vantage. Are you prepared? Over here! BECCA What if it’s beyond your grasp? You might never return. ASTRONAUT (RALEIGH) Everything worthwhile is dangerous. BECCA Are you prepared? A mission to go further than anyone. ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS Supported by fifty two countries, unprecedented When you consider This is a global mission. Pick up our new mantel. Page 21
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ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS (leaving the earth, reciting Phillis Wheatley) Leave the rolling universe behind From star to star let the mental optics rove. Measure the skies and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole. O Columbia, measure the skies and range the realms‌ Lady Columbia, range the realms. Lady Columbia, follow the sun and range the realms. LADY COLUMBIA Here, today. (The astronauts stand in awe of Lady Columbia) I have travelled alongside generations Of travellers, explorers, frontiersmen. I have greeted all In my own fashion. I, Lady Columbia. Here today. I developed the themes Of Manifest Destiny. Rode on the oxen Making their way west. Cleared the land with homesteaders, Wept with the first nations As they were forced elsewhere. I, Lady Columbia. I stood on the moon With Armstrong, I held those we lost in their final moments. O Columbia: (LADY COLUMBIA pulls out a gold record, not unlike the one Becca’s grandfather played.) Let the record show The way of life. Of life made possible by exploration. A token, From a small, distant world: Page 22
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BECCA AND LADY COLUMBIA Our sounds, Our science, Our music. RALEIGH Let the mural of stars Be your compass. The gold of the heavens BECCA AND LADY COLUMBIA Let this capsule spin Like the earth on its axis. Let it rotate for eternity. Here we stand, Cradled by constellations. RALEIGH The gold of the heavens Is more elusive, It’s value more precious… BECCA AND LADY COLUMBIA Let the capsule spin. A token, From a small and distant world. RALEIGH The gold of the heavens Is more elusive, It’s value more precious, It’s certainty for another generation, Years hence. May it someday be familiar. The gold of the heavens May it soon be familiar. BECCA Here today. Let the record show The way of life. LADY COLUMBIA Page 23
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Measure the sky and range the realms For eternity. RALEIGH Let the record orbit for eternity Let the needle circumnavigate for eternity Let this capsule spin Like the earth upon its axis. ENSEMBLE AS ASTRONAUTS Measure the sky. Range the realms. For eternity.
CODA The Record BECCA plays the golden record as the ensemble huddles around, listening intently. BECCA Follow me, follow. Let’s set out in all directions With every hope Page 24
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With great anticipation Follow me, follow. Children grow up, And space becomes theirs. With the ghosts of countless dreamers They stand in constant conversation. With every hope With great anticipation For tomorrow’s histories. Follow them. Follow me. (BLACKOUT.)
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