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Excerpts from the Opera
Act One Finale
This is the very end of Act One. The members of the Corps of Discovery have safely arrived at the Pacific shore and they stand amazed at their achievement and at the vast beauty of the open water. All are lost in thought, and the audience hears what four of the characters are thinking. Captain Lewis and Sacajawea both ponder their futures. William Clark considers the recent changes in his slave's behavior. York, who mistakenly thinks that Clark promised to grant him his freedom once they return to the United States, is imagining life as a free man.
[Lewis has been scanning the new land with his spy glass. A group of Indians in turn has been observing the Corps and keeping a healthy distance from the company, lingering almost off stage. Lewis spies the Indians and becomes his boyish paternal self again.]
Lewis
Come men, we must greet these Pacific Indians
and inform them of their new nationality
under their Great White Father Thomas Jefferson.
Sacajawea (to herself)
My Father does not live in the East.
[The men march off. Sacajawea holds back. York is standing still, staring at the sea in wonder. Clark who has been holding up the rear of the company notices that York has not fallen in.]
Clark
York, double quick!
York
Just a moment, Master Clark. I need to keep looking just a bit.
Clark (to himself)
That boy's getting too damn full of himself.
Good thing when we get back East
and he knows his place again.
Lewis (to himself)
The Western Ocean!
So long wished for, finally found!
Now what will become of me back East?
Sacajawea
My people's father does not live back East.
Our mother is the earth,
our father is the sky,
and we have sprung from this sacred ground like the cottonwoods.
Go tell the clouds that they are owned
by strange white men they've never seen.
Tell the geese that their new leader
lives out East in a big white house.
Lewis
I have done yet but little, little indeed,
to further the happiness of the human race.
I resolve in future to live for mankind
as I have hitherto lived for myself.
Clark
The boy has got to learn to obey again.
The boy has been getting his way too much
and losing touch of his proper place.
Lewis and Sacajawea
Where do I go now?
Clark
He must learn to obey!
York
I want to walk tonight.
I want to pace a measure of myself.
I want to walk on ground where none has been --
no farmer and no slave,
where every man is safe.
I want to walk tonight.
and sleep wherever I say that I should,
and call the stars by name
and name myself for what I am.
They found a pathway to the sea....
There's never been a path for me.
But maybe now there's gonna be.
America, best watch yourself!
I'm about to find you out
and finally find myself!
[The four characters simultaneously sing out their heart's desire. York finally attains a clear plan for his freedom, although he is utterly mistaken about Clark's intentions. Sagajawea stands uncertainly between two cultures. Lewis sees his finest moment already passed. And Clark suspiciously eyes York, fearing the worse of his slave. We can tell from his stance and the anger in his voice that he has no intention of allowing his slave's belligerence to continue much longer. The curtain falls with each character frozen in the attitude that will create for each his impending disaster]
Lewis and Sacajawea
Where do I go now?
Clark
He must learn to obey!
York
Freedom! Freedom!
[Slow fade to dark. Curtain.]
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