The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

 

The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

 

Music:
Colin Bright


Conductor:
Roland Peelman


Production:
Andrew McLennan

Libretto:
Amanda Stewart

Singers:
The Song Company

Musicians:
austraLYSIS

Sound Engineer:
Russell Stapleton

An opera in six scenes - Duration: 74 minutes

The bombing of the Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior in 1985 had a profound effect morally and historically in the South Pacific. A work such as the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is both a reflection of the psychological state of the times and an allegorical comment on relevant social and political issues. In the opera we collide mythic and poetic forms with direct quotation from political speeches, law court transcripts, intelligence agents' double speak techniques, activist rhetoric and a Tahitan woman's testimony. Quotations from French Officials coexist with the first descriptions of nuclear explosions in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists and U.S. President Truman. We also incorporate broadcasts from Australian, New Zealand and French archives and make allusions to French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan's concept of 'the real'. In some senses myth is an unconscious element of history. Our opera combines mythic, poetic and documentary elements in a narrative that constantly shifts temporal and spatial frames to explore the reverberations of the bombing in July 1985 and throughout the following decades. Colin Bright & Amanda Stewart

An introduction

of the characters

PLAY
 2'20"

Narator -

Clive Birch - Bass Baritone

Activist -

Nicole Thompson - Soprano

Ally -

Jo Burton - Alto

Prier -

Ruth Kilpatrick - Soprano

Mafart -

Paul McMahon - Tenor

Official -

Mark Donnelly - Baritone

Scene Libretto - extracts Synopsis
     

Prelude

6'12"

PLAY

everything rests in suspended time
dark shapes take form
along the line of shore
 
the underside meets the surface
the darkness, its taste
residues remain		  ..In New Zealand two explosions have destroyed the Greenpeace protest vessel, Rainbow Warrior
…The crew says the first blast set the boat on its side… the second was two minutes later...
     

Scene I

of myth

(the return)

9'56"

PLAY

 i… it
I the it
i…the I ..it
awash
awash
awash
awash
chaos notates order in
another dimension		 Fernando Pereira, Greenpeace photographer died July the 10th, 1985.
 The spectre of Fernando emerges from a blue, shifting underworld...
     

SceneII

of law

(the border)

14'17"

PLAY

In no way
was France involved!
As if we
would deal with our opponents in such ways!
Free speech and opposition
have made French democracy strong...

...It w w w would s s seem to appear
that the the F F French Secret S S S
Service
w w w w w w w w w w was involved
in L’Affaire Greenpeace.		 Two spies, Prieur and Mafart have been apprehended for questioning by the Activist and the Ally, Frederique...
The Narrator, Fernando, moves between them, unseen, yet trying to influence the proceedings...
...the French Government is of course involved…
…today in Auckland sentences of 10 years jail were imposed on two French secret agents
     

Interlude

4'26"

PLAY

everything’s relative in the doctrine of commodities
past sentiment, past modern, post capitalist intelligence
arbitrary as empires, the European theatre the Pacific outposts
the fortress of the visible licking the map
the nets thrashing with slow death and light.		 ...the French would oppose New Zealand’s European Economic trade access……Mafart and Prieur will be reassigned, not imprisoned, on a tropical island with a lagoon, a cinema, bars and a night club…
     

Scene III

of love

(the rationale)

7'00"

PLAY

 We are the spectacle of justice
fication
We are actors in the human tradition
sp
t t t y
here
your will is our submission to a principle
there
there
binding us closer for of and the f
the the the for		 …France had agreed to hold the agents for three years, but the pair found their way home within two years…
…French action is a blatant and outrageous breach of the adjudication…
…Jaques Chirac even sent his defence minister out to the airport to welcome home his secret agent..
“…I cannot believe it; I am dumbfounded…this just another example of the French hypocrisy over the whole affair not just the bombing, and murder, but their whole activities in the Pacific…”
     

Scene IV

of death

(the absent)

10'30"

PLAY

Nobody can speak freely
Teva’s house was destroyed by fire...
Toimata ...Eugene, my fourth baby, was born at full term but died when he was two months old. He had diarrhoea. When it stopped it was replaced by another condition. The baby became rigid like wood. Every part of his body was racked by continuous muscular contractions and he had a high temperature. It was impossible to open his fists. The doctors would not talk about his condition. I think my children died because my husband worked at Moruroa.		 In the Pacific - the Activist and Ally continue to organise the flotilla’s advance on Moruroa.
The Activist plays back a tape recording of her transcription of Toimata’s testimony.
The Official prepares for a visit to Moruroa
Meanwhile, the Activist and Ally continue to organise the flotilla’s advance on Moruroa.
     

Scene V

of war

(the visible)

4'57"

PLAY

I was impressed
by the improved
appearance of the Moruroa area...
...Not a single particle
of radioactive fallout
will ever reach an inhabited island.
In an era of nuclear energy
Tahiti may become a centre of rebirth
for our whole civilisation!		 The Official arrives in the Pacific to observe the latest testing programme.
The spies join the Official in celebratory song.
Slowly, Fernando, the Activist and Ally approach overlaying an alternate message as they prepare for confrontation.
     

SceneVI

vortex

(the act)

13'53"

PLAY

the agent the virus
inside us all the time
eating us from within
 the circle, the cycle
rases oceans to fire

...history is what I say it was
when it was how it was
that’s how it is that’s that...
...dreaming in the future
in equations of the past
a syntax of artifacts...

at the centre
there is no sound
no sight
no reason		 Another abstracted explosion breaks the scene. The Activist’s scream emerges from it. The Ally dispatches a report to the French authorities on short wave radio.
The Activist realises that Greenpeace has been betrayed.
...they boarded us. There were six inflatables of French commandos decked out in balaklavas and helmets, and sort of riot gear and they took over the bridge…
...here the dream
...here the maelstrom...
the war of the...
the law of the...
......................R
.......................E
........................A
..........................L

The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was originally commissioned by the Australian Music Centre as part of the one-act opera project in 1991. The work was completed in 1993 and was workshopped by Sydney Metropolitan Opera. Its first public performance was by The Song Company and austraLYSIS at the 1997 Sydney Festival. In 1999 it was adapted for ABC Radio, with the addition of recordings from radio and television archives of the ABC, Radio New Zealand and ound Archives/Nga Taonga Korero. These include the voices of President De Gaulle, New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, Alain Mafart, Oscar Temaru, French Prime Minister Fabius, and Greenpeace members Steve Sawyer, Carol Stuart.


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