From: cavrak@newton.emba.uvm.edu.uvm.edu (Steve Cavrak)
Subject: The Voyage: A Synopsis
Keywords: Stage Setting
Organization: University of Vermont -- Division of EMBA Computer Facility
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 08:43:00 GMT

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"The Voyage" at the Met
The Drama Behind the Opera
Grand Entrances, Secret Passageways, Sweeping Gestures --
And That's Just Backstage

By Anne Cronin,
New York Times
Section 2
Sunday, October 11, 1992
E-5


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[ The numbered paragraphs in the text refer to a half-page
illustration of the Met backstage - the illustration
by John Leinung and photographs by Marilynn K. Yee are
well worth the cost of the Times. ]


Main Stage:

The stage is made up of seven lifts, which operate
hydraulically. Lifts 1, 2 and 3 can sink one foot and rise 28
feet. They are double decked; scenery can be placed on them from
below the stage.

Lift 4, the one in motion during "The Voyage", can sink 10 feet
and rise 10 feet.

Lifts 5, 6 and 7 are also double decked; they can sink 10 feet
and rise 14 feet.
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Tomorrow night, a new opera called "The Voyage" will have it's
world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House. The work, by
Philip Glass and David Henry Hwang, commemorates the 500th
anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, but also
salutes all voyagers.

The sets for "The Voyage," designed by Robert Israels, are among
the most complicated ever undertaken at the Met. Characters sour
and drift over the stage, sets twist and shift and fly apart.

What follows are some of the technical feats involved in
assembling the opera.



PROLOGUE:

"Quarks, kooks
Heretics, lunatics
Lovers and defilers of God
Set off in leaky vessels
Towards the holes on the horizon ...."

The opening words are sung by a Stephen Hawking-like Scientist,
who is in a wheelchair that hovers in midair in front of a small
room. He speaks of time and the universe and says that "the
voyage lies where the vision lies."


(1) At the end of the prologue, the small room breaks apart, with
the rear wall flying straight up and the side panels floating
off to the sides.

All the pieces of the room are attached to pipes high up in the
stage house. The lifting of the pipes is done by electronic
winches, manually controlled. Computer-controlled motors guide
the lateral movement of the walls.


(2) After the room breaks apart, the scientist in the wheelchair
also floats offstage. The wheelchair is attached by four wires
to a carrier, which is moved by a computerized motor on a pipe,
much as the sides of the room are.


ACT I:

A spaceship is hurtling out of control toward the planet Earth.
The Commander of the ship bemoans the fact that nothing works,
not the instruments, nor the engines, not even her training,
which did not prepare her for such a disaster.

As the spaceship approaches the planet, the First Mate punches
up the images of it. The Planet has oxygen, water, vegetation
and humans: Earth at the end of the Ice Age. While the First
Mate scans the images, the Second Mate recalls his wretched
childhood and the Ship's Doctor recalls her garden.


(3) The white planes and bars that make up the spaceship are
seen at the rear of the stage. The prologue has two back drops
-- a version of the Scientist's blackboard and a glowing view of
the planets. As the wheel chair disappears, the planets' drop
rises to reveal the spaceship. This is the beginning of Act I.

The planes and bars move gently to simulate the flight, but when
the spaceship crashes, they swing about. Again, they are
attached to a series of pipes that are controlled both manually
and by computers.


(4) After the spaceship crashes, a large pyramid, echoing a
smaller one that was a part of a plane, slides slowly onto the
stage. It was attached by two lines to pipes and by one line
offstage onto a fly gallery. The three lines allow the pyramid
to float into position over the stage deck.

The four aliens, represented by stand-ins, are lowered and
tracked left and right, disappear behind the stage deck and
crash to Earth. They have become involuntary explorers of the
planet.


(5) With the stand-ins out of sight, the four singers move from
the substage sound studio and lie down on the stage elevator
just behind the stage deck. Immediately, the stage elevator
rises to just under the level of the deck where they sit up, one
by one, and appear to be climbing out of the wreckage.

The aliens recall their home planet one last time and then take
directional crystals from the wreck. When any tow of the
directional crystals are brought together, they point the
direction to their home planet. But without a spaceship, knowing
the direction home does no good. The aliens resign themselves to
life on Earth and envision their future.

The Second Mate foresees himself in a world ruled by machines --
the Industrial Revolution,


(6) symbolized by a mortar, which is wheeled onto the stage,
and


(7) by a locomotive that floats above and across it, propelled
by a motorized traveler system.


(8) The Ship's Doctor finds herself telling stories stories to
masses of children, as an oversized book, fitted with ladders
and climbing pegs, is wheeled from offstage.

The First Mate will be lifted to a higher spiritual level in
Tibet and the Commander will find herself enmeshed in a wild
rite-of-spring dance.



ACT II

Columbus makes his appearance. The court of Queen Isabella
salutes him and sends him off on his voyage with blessings.

The court set, which weighs nearly 15 tons with the chorus and
extras in place, tracks to the rear of the stage. As the
blessings fade, Columbus realizes they are a feverish memory. He
and his crew are at sea. It is Oct. 11, 1492, the 32d day of the
voyage.

Columbus and his crew are dispirited. Unlike the space
travelers, the voyagers of the 15th century can only see the
past, not the future. They do not know where their ship is
taking them. Isabella encourages them to continue, invoking Noah
and the Virgin Mary.

Isabella then seems to become a flesh-and-blood woman, not a
spirit, saying that the voyage Columbus takes is in her name: "I
am your Queen. I am your love." Just then, the First Mate sights
land.



ACT III

In a space station in the year 2092, Space Twins are looking for
origins of life in the universe. At the same time, Earth Twins,
archeologists, discover two crystals from the wreck of the
spaceship. When the crystals are brought together, they emit
signals that fix on the home planet of the four aliens from Act
I. The Space Twins pick up the signal.

The aliens, who have been living on Earth, reunite to return
home. After a jubilant sendoff, they board a spaceship. They
make their last farewells to loved ones and begin their
journey.



EPILOGUE

Columbus is on his deathbed. As Dominican monks chant a requiem,
a ghostly Isabella comes to beckon Columbus to the netherworld.
He accuses he of cheating him of the riches from the world he
discovered; she accuses him of being the Devil and of enslaving
that New World. Isabella then tries to seduce Columbus. He
resists, and is transported to the heavens, maintaining that
"Exploration will make obsolete/Even the sins of the explorer."

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"The Voyage" on Radio.

The Premiere of "The Voyage" will be broadcast live by the
Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Radio NEtwork, 
Columbus Day, at 8 P.M. Eastern daylight time. In the
New York City region, it will be carried by WQXR-FM 96.3.
For other stations, check you local listings.

[ I believe that North Country Public will carry this --
88.3 in Peru, New York is the station I can receive -- as
well as Vermont Public Radio 107.9]
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