LIBRETTO
sung in ENGLISH
Opera in One Act
Concert version performed for the China Now Music Festival
Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang
CAST OF CHARACTERS
SINGER #1, soprano, Asian American: MAYA LIN and others. SINGER #2, mezzo, Asian American: PHUONG TRAN and others SINGER #3, tenor, African American: GRADY MITCHELL and others SINGER #4, bass baritone, white American: ROBERT McNAMARA and others
PROLOGUE
ENSEMBLE
In a Rose Garden Ceremony today,
President Carter
Signed a bill
Authorizing construction
Of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial
SOLO VOICE #1
This Memorial will be
A symbol of our Nation’s determination
To heal the divisions of the Vietnam War
To restore the unity
Which our country once knew
But now has been lost
Which now has been torn
Apart
ENSEMBLE
On this first day of July
In the year Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty
Five years after
America left Saigon
This country will build
A Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Immediately, our Four Singers fall to squabbling
ENSEMBLE VOICES
- Vietnam Vets are dangerous
- Bitter
- Violent
- They suffer from PTSD
- We don’t want a Memorial! We want benefits!
- Wouldn’t you rather have a parade?
- Vietnam Vets are suckers
- Vietnam was a tragedy
- An embarrassment
- A stain on our nation
- We need a Memorial for those who resisted
- A Memorial for protesters who went to jail
- No Memorial for a war we lost
- No Memorial ‘til the Prisoners come home
- Til all the soldiers’ bodies come home
- No Memorial for baby-killers
ENSEMBLE
No Memorial
No Memorial
No Memorial
SCENE ONE
LOCATION: Yale University campus
YALE PROFESSOR
This shall be
The final project
Of our seminar
On funereal architecture:
Create a design
For the Vietnam Memorial.
STUDENTS #1 & #2
“The design shall be chosen
Through a Competition
Open to all”
YALE PROFESSOR
Though you are only
Students here at Yale
Pretend you will actually
Enter the Competition
STUDENTS #1 & #2
“Entries will be judged
Anonymously
The winner must be
An American citizen
At least eighteen years old”
Our first Ensemble Member assumes
her principal character for this
MAYA LIN (Asian female, 22, soprano), in her studio,
working on her design.
MAYA
This Memorial is meant
Not as a monument
To the individual
But rather to
The men and women
Who died in this war,
As a whole
She refers to notes for her
project.
MAYA
“It appears as a rift
In the earth
A long polished black
Stone wall
Emerging from
And receding into
The earth”
The names of the dead,
Fifty seven thousand
Will be listed
Chronologically
Their names will tell
The story of this war
Not through the battles
Not through politics
Not through headlines
But through those
Who went
Who served
Who died
Visitors
Will find their friends
Their loved ones
Their fellow soldiers
Their fellow Americans
They will see themselves
Reflected in the black marble
Names have power
So when the visitor
Touches that name
This touch will bring that name
To life
Tight special on Maya, sharing her
private thoughts.
MAYA
When a visitor
Touches a name
Their touch
Will release memories
Will release pain
I believe
I know in my heart that
When a visitor
Touches that name
Their touch
Will make them cry
Their touch
Will make them cry
A rift cut into the earth.
But over time
Rain will fall
The sun will shine
Grass will grow
A rift in the earth
A rift in the heart
Yet over time
The earth will start
The heart will begin
To heal
DESIGN JURORS ENSEMBLE
Fourteen hundred
Twenty-one entries
In the Memorial Competition
Blind submissions
All for us to judge
JUROR SOLO VOICES
- So many spirals
- Pyramids
- Columns
- Dominos
- This one looks like a teardrop
- This one looks like a spaceship
DESIGN JURORS ENSEMBLE
The largest competition
In American history
JUROR SOLO VOICE
- European history too!
DESIGN JURORS ENSEMBLE
Fourteen hundred
Twenty-one submissions!
JUROR SOLO
But Submission
Ten twenty-six
Has such simplicity
So ethereal
JUROR DUET
Yes, Submission
Ten twenty-six
JUROR SOLO VOICES
- I wonder
- I wonder
- I wonder
DESIGN JURORS ENSEMBLE
Who could have created it?
JUROR SOLO (MALE)
He must really know
What he is doing
To dare something
So naïve
JUROR SOLO
It has the purity
Of an idea that shines
A memorial for our times
DESIGN JURORS ENSEMBLE
I wonder
Who could have made it?
Yes, Submission
Ten twenty-six
An idea that shines
A memorial for our times
The Jurors continue to study
designs.
SCENE TWO
LOCATION: A lecture hall in Washington, D.C., where we hear a VOG
announcement over our house speakers.
VOG
Please welcome the President of the World Bank,
Robert McNamara.
ROBERT
McNAMARA, 65, at a press
conference, standing before a
podium with a glass of water.
ROBERT
I will take some questions
(to a REPORTER:)
Yes?
A REPORTER steps forward towards.
REPORTER
Sir, you served
As Defense Secretary
Under Kennedy and LBJ
During the Vietnam War
What is your opinion
Of the proposed
Vietnam Memorial?
ROBERT
I have said
Many times before
I will not answer questions
About Vietnam
REPORTER
Do you feel responsible
For all the dead –
ROBERT
Next!
REPORTER
Whose names will be written
On that wall?
ROBERT
Moving on!
REPORTER
When Vietnam was called
“McNamara’s War”
You said you were proud
ROBERT
(to O.S.)
Security!
Reporter rushes towards McNamara.
REPORTER
You ordered men
To be drafted
Even after you knew
The war was a hopeless cause!
Picking up the glass, the Reporter
THROWS water in McNamara’s face.
REPORTER
War criminal!
Reporter stalks OFF.
ROBERT
No more questions!
Lights SHIFT to special on
McNamara, alone. He wipes the
water from his face.
ROBERT
They will never know
The weight of these decisions
How it felt to hold
Those lives in my hands
What it meant to carry
The fates of two nations
One across an ocean
And one here at home
They think a splash of water
Can break my spirit.
Don’t they know I’ve faced
Trials much worse?
A man tried to throw me
Off a boat into the ocean.
My own dear wife,
Margaret, now departed,
Even she opposed
The decisions I made,
My own son told me
I made him ashamed.
In his room, he hung
An American flag
Upside-down
I always had the best of intentions
Decisions had to be made
And I made them
I trusted the data
Tried to be objective
The intelligence was bad
That wasn’t my fault
I knew too little
Until it was too late
I tried to save lives,
Called off the bombing
Over North Vietnam.
I knew I was sending
American soldiers
Into an arena
Where many, far too many,
Would return in body bags
Yet the cause was so important,
To save the world from tyranny
And victory seemed so close
Always just out of reach
Just around the corner
Just a few more soldiers
A few more battalions
Would finally turn the tide
How could it not?
We were Americans
How could we lose?
Victory seemed so close
Just around the corner
Until the day
When suddenly,
It was so far away
The day my son
Hung an American flag
In his bedroom
Upside-down
I always had the best of intentions
He exits, remaining confident that
he did the best he could.
SCENE THREE
The Pension Building at Judiciary
Square, where the Commission of
Fine Arts presents the winning
design.
VOG
We are proud to present the winning design for
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and its creator,
Maya Lin.
Maya steps forward, her design
renderings displayed on
projections. The remaining three
singers once again become a
ENSEMBLE of voices, surrounding
Maya as they fight over her design
the same way they have about over
the war itself
ENSEMBLE VOICES
- It’s a “black gash of pain and sorrow”
- “Intentionally insulting”
- “Tries to bury and banish the whole Vietnam
experience!”
- “Just a black wall that expresses nothing”
- “Sheer human waste”
- “Like the ovens at Dacchau”
- “A wailing wall for future anti-draft
demonstrators”
- Treats the dead like “victims of some
monstrous traffic accident.”
- “Abstract, anonymous, inconspicuous, and
meaningless”
- It’s “Orwellian glop,” a “black hole,” a
“cave”
- “A better alternative” would be “no Memorial”
at all!
The ENSEMBLE portrays various
commentators
GOLDBERGER
(speaks)
Paul Goldberger, New York Times:
(sings)
“One of the most subtle and sophisticated
Pieces of public architecture”
Ever created
NATIONAL REVIEW
(speaks)
National Review:
(sings)
If the current model
Has to be built,
Stick it off in some tidal flat
Let it memorialize
Jane Fonda
Ensuring that our soldiers
Died in vain
VON ECKHARDT
(speaks)
Wolf Von Eckhardt:
(sings)
Its impact will take effect slowly,
Taking hold of the mind
Before understanding
Quickens the heart
ROSS PEROT
(speaks)
Ross Perot:
(sings)
I’ll buy --
(speaks)
Damn it, I can’t sing! Hell if I’m gonna
support some ugly black slab designed by an egg
roll.
JEANE KIRKPATRICK
(speaks)
Jeane Kirkpatrick:
(sings)
This will be
The most moving
War memorial
Ever created
TOM CARHART
(speaks)
Tom Carhart:
(sings)
The inscription
On this wall should read:
(speaks)
“Designed by a gook”
ENSEMBLE VOICES
“An Asian designer for an Asian war”
How Chinese are you?
How Chinese are you?
How Chinese are you?
ENSEMBLE Members exit, leaving
Maya alone. She gathers her
strength, fighting to understand
the vicious attacks.
MAYA
Shocked
Confused
What?
How?
Is this
Really happening?
I’m Chinese as apple pie
Born and raised in the Midwest,
Not many Asians around me,
I was just like any other kid
All I’m here to do
Is protect my design,
See my vision through
To its completion.
This is all about the work
Everything else
Is only a distraction
I’m just like everyone else
But I think the organizers
Are protecting me
From the worst things
That people are saying
About my work
About my design
About me
So what if I’m Asian
And young and a woman?
None of that should matter
It’s only about the work
I’m just like everyone else
And yet
And yet
These battles I’m fighting
Would they be different
If I was older too?
If I was older
If I was white.
These battles I’m fighting
Feel like something bigger
Perhaps I’ve been too naïve
These battles I’m fighting
Are not only about the work
I feel as if I’m standing on
The rifts
The rifts in our nation
The rifts in this country
We call America
This land which is my home.
So I must fight
With greater wisdom,
One which understands
That these battles I fight
Are not only about the work
That some who hate
My vision and design
They hate the idea
Of me
How Chinese am I?
I’m not just a kid
From the Midwest
I’m not just the same
As everyone else
I’m a young woman
I am Asian,
As Asian American
As apple pie
SCENE FOUR
Set transitions to split scene: a
liquor store in Baltimore, where
PHUONG TRAN, an Asian woman in her
40’s, stocks the shelves; and a
automotive repair shop in
Massachusetts, where GRADY
MITCHELL, a Black man in his 40’s,
works on an engine.
GRADY’S BOSS (OFF)
Hey Grady! Grady Mitchell!
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER (OFF)
Hey Mama! Look it this!
GRADY’S BOSS (our baritone) and
PHOUNG’S DAUGHTER (our soprano)
both enter, holding newspapers.
GRADY’S BOSS
Did you see this, Mitchell?
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
Did you see this, Mama?
GRADY’S BOSS & PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
They’re about to dedicate
A Vietnam Memorial
Some kind of Wall
With the name of every soldier
Who died in the War
GRADY’S BOSS
Thought you’d wanna know
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
That’s good, right?
GRADY’S BOSS
Didn’t you fight over there?
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
Good that folks remember
GRADY’S BOSS
Right, Grady Mitchell?
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
Don’t you think, Mama?
GRADY
No!
PHUONG
No!
I don’t give a damn!
GRADY’S BOSS
But your application said
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
But you’re always complaining
PHUONG
Americans forgot the War
Once they ran away
Now they pretend
It never even happened
They put it out of their head
GRADY
Sure, I was over there
But nothing much happened
I played a lot of cards
Bored most of the time
I’ve put it out of my head
PHUONG
This makes no difference!
Turning her back on her daughter,
Phuong returns to stocking the
shelves.
GRADY’S BOSS
You’re so well-adjusted
Not one of those crazy
Vietnam vets!
Grady’s Boss exits, leaving the
newspaper behind. Grady returns to
working on the car.
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
All right, fine
I guess you don’t care
Phuong’s Daughter starts to leave.
Then --
PHUONG
Will your father’s name be there?
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
What?
PHUONG
On this Wall
Will your father’s name be there?
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
No, it’s only for
American soldiers
For South Vietnam
No, his name
Won’t be on the Wall
PHUONG
American soldiers
Your father fought too
For South Vietnam
PHUONG
It makes no difference
Americans forget the War
They won’t remember
All the Vietnamese
Who died alongside them
No they can only
Remember themselves
PHUONG’S DAUGHTER
All right, fine
Just stay angry
Phoung’s Daughter exits, leaving
the newspaper behind.
GRADY
Hear that, Sergeant?
PHUONG
Hear that, Husband?
GRADY
“Crazy Vietnam vet”
That’s what you don’t wanna
be
“Crazy Vietnam vet”
That’s all we see on TV
PHUONG
Our own daughter
Calls me angry
They all want me to be
A grateful refugee
PHUONG
They all forget
How you died
Fighting the Viet Cong
GRADY
No one knows what we went
through
In the eleventh cavalry
The snakes and the mosquitos
The nights so dark
We couldn’t see our hands
But you always promised
No man would be left behind
PHUONG
No one knows what you went
through
No man should be left behind
PHUONG
That night near Bau Bang
GRADY
That day near Quan Loi
PHUONG
Your battalion was attacked
GRADY
The NVA attacked
Shrapnel flying everywhere
I felt something hit me
Put my hand to my head
It came away covered in blood
PHUONG
Tanks were ordered
To roll back,
You saw a Lieutenant and Driver
Passed out, unconscious
Instead of retreating,
You rescued them both
GRADY
You grabbed my arm
Pulled me to safety
You were covered in blood
I thought it was mine
But then I saw the wound
Spurting from your neck
PHUONG
They told me that story
The day I got the message
You were in the hospital
Calling my name
By the time I arrived,
You were hooked up to a machine
But it had stopped beeping
PHUONG
I held you in my arms
I should have reached you
sooner
GRADY
But you died in my arms
I should have done more
PHUONG
When the War ended,
They called you a traitor,
I took our daughter
Paid thirty ounces of gold
To board a rowing boat.
You died for your country
I survived and saved our daughter
We are heroes too
Not just grateful refugees
GRADY
Now they want to build
Some kind of big Memorial
But haven’t got the money
For families left behind.
Your boy Hector
I make sure that he knows
How his father died
Leaving no man behind
And the last man he saved was me
GRADY
Will it say that on this
Wall?
Will this Wall pay for your
kid?
Will this Wall bring you
back?
PHUONG
Will it say that on this
Wall?
Will it make the world
remember?
Will this Wall bring you
back?
Phoung and Grady pick up the
newspapers, and read about the
Memorial.
SCENE FIVE
Dedication week for the Memorial.
November, 1982. Maya enters, along
with Grady and Phuong, who carries
a satchel. Robert observes the
Wall from a distance. As she
sings, we see a projection of the
Memorial come slowly into view.
MAYA
I had an idea
Which for so long
Was only in my mind
All my battles fought
Some lost but even so
I protected my design
From those who would destroy it
From those who sought to
Push me aside
MAYA
What will the people think?
How will they feel?
Now will my vision
Achieve what I had hoped?
All I had dreamed
Back in that classroom?
It feels like a lifetime ago
PHUONG, GRADY, AND ROBERT
Surprises me too
That I had to see this
See the Memorial for myself
Maya remembers her original
proposal, which the three visitors
(and we) see, now come to life.
MAYA
“Walking through this park,
The Memorial appears
As a rift in the earth
A long, polished black
Stone wall
Emerging and receding
Into the earth
The low walls emerge
Growing out of the earth
“Walking into the grassy site,
MAYA & PHUONG
“We can barely make out
MAYA & GRADY
“The carved names
Upon the Memorial walls
MAYA
“These names ...
MAYA & ROBERT
“Seemingly infinite
Convey the overwhelming numbers
MAYA & GRADY
“While unifying these names
Into a whole.
MAYA
“For this is not meant to be
MAYA & PHUONG
“A monument to the individual
MAYA, PHUONG & GRADY
“But rather as a Memorial
MAYA, PHUONG, GRADY & ROBERT
“To the men and women
Who died in this War
As a whole”
MAYA, PHUONG, GRADY & ROBERT
“We, the living,
MAYA & ROBERT
“Are brought to realize
These deaths”
MAYA
“It is up to each person
To resolve or come to terms
With this loss”
Grady searches for the name of his
Sergeant. Robert walks along the
Wall, surveying the seemingly
endless list of names. Phuong
looks for the year when her
husband died.
MAYA
“For death in the end
Is a personal and private matter
And the area contained
Within this Memorial
Is a quiet place
Meant for personal reflection
And private reckoning”
GRADY
Nineteen sixty-nine
Here you are, Sarge
PHUONG
Nineteen seventy-four
The year you died, Husband
ROBERT, PHUONG & GRADY
When I stare at the Memorial
I see my own face
As Phuong, Grady & Robert stare at
the Wall, though the singers
themselves may be facing
downstage, we might see their
faces reflected in the projection
of the Memorial, as visitors do
when facing the polished black
marble.
GRADY
My face, with all the others
Like we’re together again
Now I remember something
Which I’ve long forgotten
I remember how to Cry
ROBERT
They weren’t just numbers
On a daily report
I sent them to War
And that’s where they died
Whenever I turn,
I cannot escape
Seeing my own face
PHUONG
My face, reflected
In names upon names
They all fought with you
For the same cause.
This isn’t enough
Something is missing
Phuong pulls out a thermos from
her satchel. Pours water on her
finger and writes her Husband’s
name on the Wall.
PHUONG
With this water,
I write your name
Now I can see you too
GRADY
Manuel Gonzalez
Manuel Gonzalez
Manuel Gonzalez
PHUONG
Tran Nguyen Dao
Tran Nguyen Dao
Tran Nguyen Dao
Trio with Robert:
ROBERT
I feel the Rift
In this country
Feel the Rift
With my son
Could it be
That my pride
My stubborn will
My need to win
Were all greater
Than my good intentions?
Our four characters remain at the
Memorial, all coming to terms in
their own way with loss, death,
and the War.
MAYA, PHUONG, GRADY & ROBERT
When a visitor
Touches a name
Their touch
Will release memories
Will release pain
MAYA
I believe
I know in my heart that
MAYA, PHUONG, GRADY & ROBERT
When a visitor
Touches that name
Their touch
Will make them cry
Their touch
Will make them cry
MAYA
A rift cut into the earth
MAYA, PHUONG, GRADY & ROBERT
But over time
Rain will fall
The sun will shine
Grass will grow
A rift in the earth
A rift in the heart
Yet over time
The earth will start
The heart will begin
To heal
Lights FADE to BLACK.
CURTAIN