SPACE OPERA

LIBRETTO

Georgi Gospodinov

Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel

Characters:

EVE: Mezzo-soprano

ADAM: Bass-baritone

FLY / LAIKA: Soprano and Counter-tenor

PRODUCER / BEDOUIN: Bass

FRUIT FLIES / PEOPLE: Mixed chorus

Contents

ACT ONE

I            Prologue to Act One – Fly, Chorus......................................................................p. 3

II           Last Night on Earth – Eve, Adam, Producer..........................................................p. 5

III          Numbers. Countdown. Blast off – Eve, Adam, Chorus..........................................p. 6

IV          Producer’s Aria – Producer, Chorus.....................................................................p. 8

V           Inside the Capsule – Eve, Adam..........................................................................p. 9

VI          Aria of the Neglected Fly – Fly, Chorus...............................................................p. 10

VII        Eve and Fly – Eve, Adam, Fly...............................................................................p. 12

VIII       From Earth – Eve, Producer, Chorus......................................................................p. 13

IX          Loneliness in the Cosmos – Eve, Adam, Chorus...................................................p. 14

ACT TWO

X           Prologue to Act Two – Laika, Producer, Chorus....................................................p. 18

XI          Back on Earth – Producer, Chorus........................................................................p. 19

XII        On the Spaceship. Patching up – Eve, Adam, Fly.................................................p. 20

XIII       The Mars – Eve, Adam..........................................................................................p. 21

XIV       Fly’s Departure – Eve, Adam, Fly..........................................................................p. 22

XV        Love in the Cosmos – Eve, Adam..........................................................................p. 24

XVI       Epilogue – Martian desert – All............................................................................p. 25

 

ACT ONE

                                    I      PROLOGUE TO ACT ONE

Darkness and distant stars, which can be scattered throughout the whole auditorium, not just on stage, as in a planetarium, the slow rotation of the stars. Reddish Martian glow is slowly growing larger at the very back of the stage.

Visual play with space. The space capsule is like a skull, small, a cramped, claustrophobic space, juxtaposed against the great boundlessness of the cosmos.

 

[PROJECTION]        The whole history of the cosmos has been marked by the solitude of several animals.

                                    Human cosmic solitude comes later.

FRUIT FLIES            In the beginning there was the fly…

                                    In the beginning, there was the common fruit fly

                                    They were the first ones sent into space

                                    Drosophila melanogaster,

                                    Our name is longer than we are

                                    We who work the simple miracle

of turning fruit into wine

Let’s be frank

We are terribly fit for experiments

We multiply quickly

We die quickly

(a short life-cycle,

as they say)

Oh, how fit we are for experiments!

No one has been convicted for killing a fly

No one has been found guilty. 

 

The Fly is on the balcony behind the audience, like in a church during ceremony.

                                                         

FLY                         Rest in Peace.

 

FRUIT FLIES            Hats off to the fruit flies

Who were there in the beginning

And who were forgotten

They were the first to leave the earthly sphere.

Year? – 1946.

Rocket? – V2.

Height? – Almost 100 km.

And then came the monkeys –

rhesus monkeys – macaque

Albert the Second was first.

Year? – 1949.

Height? – 134 km.

Albert the First died before getting up high enough.

Albert the Second also died, but on the way back down.

Albert the Third remained in space.

Albert the Fourth was the lucky one, he came back alive.

And then he died.

Monkeys again preceded man

– both in space and on earth.

Albert the First, Albert the Second, Albert the Third,

Albert the Fourth...

 

FLY                            Rest in Peace

 

FRUIT FLIES            A whole cosmic dynasty… rest in peace.

At least you have a name, albeit one and the same.

As for us… is there even a single fly with a name?

                                   

                                    Let us not forget Laika the dog,

The first real cosmonaut,

The first one in orbit

Sex? – Female.

Age? – Three.

Breed? – Stray mutt.

Place of birth? – Some backyard in Moscow.

Place of death? – Somewhere in the Cosmos.

Rocket? – Sputnik.

Launched the rocket? – On November 3, 1957

Kicked the bucket? – On November 3, 1957

Bzzz...

 

Let us remember all the souls left in orbit

All the souls of animals still circling

Fruit flies – nameless

Nameless mice

Nameless earthworms

Monkeys with one and the same name,

Albert One, Albert Two, Albert Three, Albert Four

Dogs, each with its own name,

Laika, Bars, Lisichka, Belka, Strelka, Pchelka, Damka, Krasavka,
Chernushka, Zvezdochka, Verterok, Ugolyok, Mushka...
five of them in flight...

 

Rest in Peace.

Every rocket was a Noah’s ark.