Music Group II
The Pearl (Prelude, Act 1) 1988
Vocals - Linda Boyd, Diane Hetherington, Wyckham Porteous
(See notes below)
This section is from The Pearl, an incomplete youth opera from a story taken from a Plains Indian tale collected in ”Broken Arrow” by Hymeostes Storm, about a mouse and his transformation into an eagle. Originally commissioned by the Kathaumieux Festival (on the rebound from Schafer again) in Powell River, the debut performance was truly one of the worst pieces I’ve ever written. But David Walsh at Vancouver Opera wanted to produce it and I said I’d have to rewrite it and he let me go ahead. With a Canada Council grant in hand, including a budget for workshops, we were off. Then in a couple of months, David was offered a good job at Scottish Opera. So he was off. I took the workshop money and recorded what I’d finished so far. I knew it needed a lot of work with the libretto – plus the inevitable “But is it opera??” questions. Another one for the box…
1.) Prelude
The scene: the night sky…stars fading in, and a tiny bell appears from a great distance…. Stars become galaxies etc.…sparks from the unseen fire below gradually appear, as a dome of sound softly enters the scene, then a repeating beat…a short melodic outline, then a shadowy, bearded figure – he’s the Storyteller, holding a lantern. He begins his tale in a suitably ambiguous/mystic mode…
2.) Storyteller: “If you look up”
By now the storyteller has caught your attention onstage – the fire burning still in the background…
3.) Chorus: “Come and take your place by me”
The initiate/audience is entering another dimension…but safely, beside this invisible mystic presence.
4.) Storyteller: “Another Storm”
The Storyteller continues, his words still ambiguous…
5.) Storyteller: “Now hear this story”
Now we’re in the real world, but a different, emotional space.
6.) Storyteller: “She grew up thinking all was well”
The story develops faster, recitative-style as we approach the present.
7.) Chorus: “Listen, listen to the wind”
An image of her psyche: “Like the pearl within the shell, who she was, no one could tell…”
8.) Storyteller: “Except from time to time”…
Her central conflict.
9.) Marnie: “Thunder and the rain”
At home now, setting the table, singing miniature family portraits.
10.) Janine: “Tell me the reason”
11.) Marnie “What do y’ know?”
What do you know?
What do you see?
Can you explain
Your destiny?
The simple things
That once were true,
The changing colours,
Red to blue,
Now have an order,
Always the same,
Is this protection
Against the pain?
We hang the pictures
Upon the wall,
Time moves slowly,
If at all.
The beauty that we create with love and dedication
Seems always filed with tears,
What is this sadness in our hearts
That so fills our years?
