Continuing my series of blogs on the development of the opera Philippa, based on the life of Philippa Duke Schuyler, the Harlem-born concert pianist (daughter of African-American journalist George S. Schuyler and white Texan Josephine Cogdell), who died in Vietnam in 1967 rescuing schoolchildren...
I muse on the possibility of self-sacrifice, an aspect of emotional research I feel I will have to undertake.
At the end of the opera, during the attack on Hué, Philippa and one of the 'orphans' are strapped into a rescue helicopter which will plunge into the sea off Ðà Nãng.
Was this self-sacrifice? And still so considering the orphan who was sitting on her knee also didn't survive? It is clearly bravery, and is that enough for an ending?
Assuming that it was self-sacrifice because Philippa had the image of self-sacrifice before her in her new-found beliefs, I wonder what it takes to actually act like this. It is an adult behaviour; 'childishness' would equate to the survival mode. But how does Philippa, whom I have so far depicted as so enmeshed with her childish concerns, get to this stage?
On the other hand, a psychoanalytic reading of the story, might say that Philippa felt she had to rescue the 'orphans', the children of US servicemen and Vietnamese women because in Vietnam for the first time she saw herself (the child caught between cultures) reflected in others and just couldn't let these reflections die.
I don't mind if an audience comes out arguing about these things. But it's the idea of self-sacrifice that most moves me at the moment.
I muse on the possibility of self-sacrifice, an aspect of emotional research I feel I will have to undertake.
At the end of the opera, during the attack on Hué, Philippa and one of the 'orphans' are strapped into a rescue helicopter which will plunge into the sea off Ðà Nãng.
 |
| somewhere over there (looking south) |
Assuming that it was self-sacrifice because Philippa had the image of self-sacrifice before her in her new-found beliefs, I wonder what it takes to actually act like this. It is an adult behaviour; 'childishness' would equate to the survival mode. But how does Philippa, whom I have so far depicted as so enmeshed with her childish concerns, get to this stage?
On the other hand, a psychoanalytic reading of the story, might say that Philippa felt she had to rescue the 'orphans', the children of US servicemen and Vietnamese women because in Vietnam for the first time she saw herself (the child caught between cultures) reflected in others and just couldn't let these reflections die.
I don't mind if an audience comes out arguing about these things. But it's the idea of self-sacrifice that most moves me at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment