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Leif
2008
soprano: WOMAN / CORNELIA HORSFORD/ ANNE WHITNEY / RUNNER
baritone: MAN / EBEN HORSFORD / CITY COUNSELLOR / STATUE OF LEIF ERIKSSON
flute
clarinet doubling bass clarinet
percussion
bass drum, glockenspiel, marimba, pebbles, snare drum, tam-tam, vibraphone
piano
violin
cello
duration 13'
commissioned by Boston Music Viva with funds provided by Harvard Musical Association
first performance:
Elizabeth Keusch & David Kravitz with Boston Musica Viva, cond. Richard
Pittman
Tsai Performance Center, Boston University / October 3, 2008 / dir. Nicholas Deutsch
RECORDING—first performance
SCORE
Scene 1: Two Tourists
Scene 2: Eben and Cornelia Horsford
Scene 3: Anne Whitney and the City Councillor
Scene 4: The Statue of Leif Eriksson
Scene 5: The Runner and the Statue
ARTICLE
boston.com
LIBRETTO
Scene 1: Two Tourists
A hot summer day. Enter two tourists—a middle-aged, suburban American couple wearing typical
tourist trappings: sunglasses, caps. Woman is holding the guidebook, while Man is carrying the
digital camera
Woman
Flipping through her book as she walks
I think the Museum of Fine Arts is near here.
Man
I thought we were going to get lunch.
Woman
We are. But we need to make a plan.
Looking at the map in her book she glances up
for a street sign and notices the statue
of Leif Eriksson
Oh, look, here's another one.
Curious, she circles around it.
Isn't this one interesting?
her husband watches without much interest
Reading the plaque at the base of the statue
"Leif the Discoverer -" (she pronounces it "Leef")
Son of Erik who sailed from Iceland and landed on
this continent A.D. 1000."
How funny!
What's a statue of Leif Eriksson doing here?
Man
What's the book say?
Woman
Not a thing.
Typical!
Right.
Well, let's take a picture.
Man
Smile!
Man takes a photograph
Woman
Now, let's see. Commonwealth Avenue,
and we need to get to Huntington Avenue.
She looks at the guidebook and then around again
Let's just ask someone.
She calls to someone just offstage
Excuse me
Woman exits, Man follows after her
•
Scene 2: Eben and Cornelia Horsford
Eben
Cornelia, God has given me so many blessings throughout my life: a professorship at Harvard University, the discovery of double-acting baking powder, the successful Rumford Chemical Works, and so many great discoveries regarding the Norsemen. And you, my greatest blessing, my daughter and most loyal assistant. And now, at the end of it, he gives me our greatest triumph yet. The ruins at Gerry's Landing were the irrefutable proof we were seeking. The location so specified in the sagas. The foundations so exactly what we know of the foundations of the ancient Icelandic dwellings. Come, let us enumerate the facts once again.
First, consider the hearth we found.
Cornelia
In the center—
Eben
the exact—
Cornelia
the exact,
Eben / Cornelia
the exact center of the room.
Eben
A ring of stones,
Cornelia
Red—
Eben
strangely red, due to—
Cornelia
peroxide of iron.
Eben
As if—
Cornelia
As if they had been,
Eben / Cornelia
As if they had been exposed to prolonged heat!
Eben
Exactly as it should be!
Cornelia, what about the large boulder that we found?
Cornelia
Right under where the doorway should be.
Eben
For the logs—
Cornelia
must rest on stone.
Eben
Why?
Cornelia
To protect against decay.
Eben
To protect against decay!
Eben / Cornelia
Exactly as it should be!
This is the proof,
the proof which we've been seeking.
These are the facts,
the facts that will give our Leif his due.
Boston must now embrace their long-forgotten son,
Our discoveries and the life of this great Viking,
must surely now convince the city council.
Our work will be immortalized,
this man will be immortalized,
Boston will have its Leif,
and our Leif will have his statue!
•
Scene 3: Anne Whitney and City Councillor
City Councillor
Anne Whitney, esteemed sculptress,
The City of Boston needs your help, most desperately.
Only your hands can fashion what we require.
A statue for our world-famous Commonwealth Avenue mall.
He has to stand noble and proud and tall.
Leif Erikson, the first Christian of the Norsemen.
Leif Erikson, the great converter of his people.
Leif Erikson, the discoverer of the New World.
Anne
But wasn't that Columbus?
City Councillor
No! No
Leif came first!
Leif landed in 1000 A.D.
Columbus five hundred years later.
And what did Columbus do?
He brought genocide.
He brought slavery.
While Leif, our Leif, he brought progress!
Christianity!
Civilization!
And commerce!
Anne
Did he even land in Boston?
City Councillor
Who knows?
Who cares?
Just get it done!
City Councillor hands Anne money and she begins work. Time passes as Anne sings the following
and works on the statue
Anne
A sculptor learns early on not to ask too many questions.
We do what we're told, and then we get paid.
It's an ancient agreement.
It's a simple arrangement.
City Councillor
viewing the progress
He has to be fair-skinned.
Columbus was dark.
Catholic.
Anne
A sculptor archives history.
City Councillor
But Leif has to be a Protestant!
Make him more Protestant!
Anne
dumbfounded
Make him more Protestant?
City Councillor
repeating, emphatic
More Protestant!
As Anne continues working, City Councillor becomes Statue.
i.e. Statue has been built in City Councillor's image; proud, tall, smug
Anne
We set it in stone, but we never get to choose.
It's all about power,
Cities make statues, not sculptors.
Cities make statues, not sculptors.
Scene 4: The Statue of Leif Eriksson
Statue observes the seasons passing around him. He starts off tall and proud in his pose as City Councillor, but as time passes he becomes more and more contemplative and changes his position until, finally after more than a century, we see Statue amidst the Boston of today, much more somber than before and with his hand down at his side.
Statue
Eben, closest I had to a father.
You transplanted me here, but I grew to like it.
Time passes slowly for a statue.
But all too soon you, my father, were gone.
You made me believe I belonged here.
But you were wrong.Anne, closest I had to a mother.
You awakened me from stone.
Time passes slowly for a statue.
But all too soon you, my mother, were gone.
Cornelia, you were like an older sister.
You told me that I had a purpose.
Too soon you, too, were gone.
And wrong,
all of you,
wrong.
The city has grown up around me.
I can't see the river anymore.
People hurrying by.
Never a second glance.
Except from tourists who don't know who I am or why I'm here.
Eben, Cornelia, the history you
discovered has been replaced and rewritten.
Anne, the city has no use for me anymore.
And Leif, my second self, my only brother.
Are you content with this, our cold memorial?
This mockery of fame?
Are you content?
How could you be content?
No one remembers or cares who we are,
or why I'm here.
Scene 5: The Runner and the Statue
Statue standing with his hand at his side. Runner enters jogging and smiles
when she sees Statue, she jogs to Statue and stops in front of it
Runner
Hello.
Statue
somewhat surprised
Hello.
Runner
I'm glad to see you again.
Statue
Excuse me?
Runner
You don't remember me.
You must see hundreds of people every day.
And especially the days before the race.
You remind me of my husband.
When I was training he'd always be waiting for me with the car.
He'd always be standing there,
She mimics Statue's pose
like that,
just like you,
watching for the speck that's me to appear.
I like to imagine you're watching for me like he did.
I'm glad to see you again.
We all are, the ones who run the marathon every year.
We know when we see you there's only a mile left to go.
We like to imagine you're watching out for all of us.
I just wanted to say hello,
and I was wondering, if you wouldn't mind,
tomorrow will you watch for me?
Statue
Do you know who I am?
Runner
Leif the Discoverer.
They call you lucky.
I'm sorry, I don't know anything else.
But you're lucky, you always have been.
And you're my favorite part of Boston.
Will you watch for me?
Statue
quietly
I will.
Runner
simply, but happily
Thank you.
she runs off
Statue slowly lifts his hand back up to his customary pose to watch for the runners
Frederick Choi (b.1979)