The first of these was The Second Hurricane , which is an opera written for high school performers about a group of young people who are stranded while trying to bring relief supplies to an area flooded by a hurricane. They are forced to overcome their differences when a second hurricane threatens them. Billy the Kid was Copland next major work, he used many folk songs as he did with El Salon , but this time in a ballet form. The central portion of the ballet concerns itself with significant moments in the life of Billy the Kid. The first scene is a street in a frontier town.
Familiar figures amble by.
Cowboys saunter into town, some on horseback, others with their lassoes. Some Mexican women do a Jarabe which is interrupted by a fight between two drunks. Attracted by a gathering crowd, Billy is seen for the first time as a boy of twelve with his mother. The brawl turns ugly, guns are drawn and, in some unaccountable way, Billy's mother is killed. Without an instant's hesitation, in cold fury, Billy draws a knife from a cowhand's sheath and stabs his mother's slayers.