FULL TWO YOSEMITES An Environmental Opera (Justin Ralls) Portland OR 2017 Aaron Short, Nicholas Meyer
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: TWO YOSEMITES An Environmental Opera
- Composer: Ralls Justin
- Libretto: Justin Ralls Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Lewis & Clark College, Law School Amphiteater, Portland, Oregon, Opera Theater Oregon
- Recorded: September 16, 2017
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Aaron Short, Nicholas Meyer
- Conductor: Justin Ralls
- Orchestra: Opera Theater Oregon
- Chorus: Opera Theater Oregon
- Stage Director:
- Stage Designer: Opera Theater Oregon
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Opera Theater Oregon
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
- Video Recording from: Vimeo FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
THE OPERA sets to music the meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and conservationist John Muir on their historic, 1903 camping trip in Yosemite National Park. Arguably the most famous camping trip in history, it marked a pivotal moment in the emergent American Conservation movement to save and protect lands and wildlife from the exploitative impulses of the 19th and 20th Centuries. The two men shared much in common, however, where they diverged illuminated vastly different visions of our relationship with our environment. The drama takes place over the course of one evening, around the campfire at Glacier Point, yet within this setting, the archetypes of their concerns and experience, ultimately, express our own.
We embark on this journey with them; their words speak across time to the perennial engagement of our own consciousness. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt signed into existence five national parks, 18 national monuments, 55 national bird sanctuaries and wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests. Two Yosemites tells the story of two powerful, eccentric, and passionate figures, whose meeting illuminates the debate of conservation, democracy, and the relationship of society with nature. It is a story of love and sacrifice and the fate of a long lost valley whose name became a rallying cry and a century of controversy