A haunting pursuit, a horrifying specter, and ghostly visions-- and it's only our second Digital Short.
Composer Missy Mazzoli and director James Darrah's exquisitely beautiful (yet deeply unsettling) piece, The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings, is available to watch right here.
Prefer to watch with captions?
Click on the white "cc" button on the bottom, right side of the video.
A Note from Composer Missy Mazzoli and Story Background
My 2018 opera Proving Up, created in collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek and based on a short story by Karen Russell, is a surreal meditation on the origins and dark realities of the American Dream, as told through the fictional story of a struggling family of homesteaders.
The work dwells more in questions than answers: In a country where we imagine all success to be earned, is failure also earned? What happens when conditions become so extreme that the only way to achieve the American Dream is to resort to cruelty, thievery and manipulation? No character illustrates this darkness more viscerally than the Sodbuster, a gaunt and ghostly villain, a walking symbol of fate, death and pure rotten luck who cheerfully sings “the west is a land of infinite beginnings” as he wreaks havoc. The Sodbuster comes in many forms and with many faces, but rest assured, in the end, he comes for us all.
Story Background
American homesteaders had to "prove up" the land they settled in order to obtain the deed. They had to fulfill the daunting requirements of the Homestead Act, which included five years of harvest, building a dwelling, and perhaps the most elusive element of all: obtaining a glass window for their home. One family, with possession of a glass window, sends their son on a mission to share their precious commodity with distant neighbors who are expecting a visit from a government inspector. He comes face to face with a strange figure who knows all too well the cost of the American Dream.
READ THE LYRICS TO SODBUSTER'S ARIA
READ THE LYRICS TO SODBUSTER'S ARIA
The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings
(The Sodbuster's Aria)
Text by Royce Vavrek
Suns, moons, droughts, famines!
No sense to go counting tragedies...
The west is a land of infinite beginnings.
Don't you agree? Miles Zegner?
A family, I may have, I did have.
Parents, buried back east.
A wife, but she wasn't worth much...
So impatient! She lost faith.
Lost her will to prosper.
Had to make a break, make a fresh start.
Drove her off and plowed her under!
Kids... Had them. Sicklings. Weak ones.
Sons, daughters...
None lasted. They couldn't take it.
Wasted away. They were weak. Weak!
The West is a land of infinite beginnings.
Isn't that right? Miles Zegner?
Pick up, start again.
File a pre-empt. Stake a new claim.
I've made a stake to my claim.
Fulfilled each of the Act's stipulations.
Each one, Miles Zegner.
Each one but glass.
I'm in real need, Miles.
I've got all other proof, all but the final stipulation.
Glass.
If you prefer to watch this digital short on your Smart TV just follow these suggestions:
With your help, we can provide support for the hundreds of artists and staff whose work and livelihood have been impacted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, and provide quality programming free of charge.
The power of opera stems from the fact that nearly every aspect of each and every production is lovingly created by hand, instrument or voice.
With a full orchestra and chorus, stagehands, singers, designers, costumers, technicians and more, each opera we produce employs 300-500 people.
The LA Opera Relief Fund provides much needed relief for those impacted by production cancellations and will help us continue to employ artists, and serve and support our community during this unprecedented time.
To give to the LA Opera Relief Fund click here
HAVE QUESTIONS OR NEED HELP?
Our exceptional box office staff would love to help you. You can reach them Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm at 213.972.8001 or at customerservice@laopera.org
