If This Goes On…
A Demo a Day: Day One.
This is the pole position song in Judgment Day. The opera opens with Thomas ranting about an impending apocalypse— a manmade one of mass media, surveillance capitalism, global terrorism and religious extremism. If we don’t change course, he warns, things will end very badly.
Background
My all-time favorite speculative fiction author is Robert Heinlein. His decades-spanning career cast such a huge shadow that it would be hard to sum it up here. He’s probably best known for penning Stranger in a Strange Land as well as other notable works including The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Time Enough for Love and Starship Troopers. While his later writing may be cringeworthy in today’s woke world (lots of male gaze stuff), overall his collective body of work is very progressive and though-provoking, highly individualistic but also compassionate, always probing the human condition.
One of my top Heinlein picks is his 1960 novella “If This Goes On…,” which tells the tale of a Christian theocracy that has come to power in the United States and a Masonic revolution intent on overthrowing it. It explores media manipulation, power politics, the role of organized religion, and personal belief. As a bonus, the novella features a strong female lead named Magdalene, a nun who plays a key part in the plot to take the country back.
As I was first conceiving the opera, I decided to employ the device of a protagonist delivering first-person admonitions to the audience to both open and close the story. The themes in the Heinlein story fit so well for a Revelation tale, and are always so top of mind for me, that the idea to title the opening piece after the novella naturally popped into my head. This one narrative choice unlocked several others going forward. While the story is totally different, the thematic overlap strongly suggested certain characters and situations. In hindsight, it was a very good choice.
Scene
The opera opens with Thomas singing the first line a cappella on a darkened stage. As the lights come up, we see him in his New York loft, seated in a big armchair, flipping channels on his huge TV. The images on the screen are a barrage of news stories, alternately horrific and ridiculous. At the first bridge, Thomas gets up and addresses the audience. He is soon joined by dancers, whose gestures begin slowly and methodically, but over the course of the song become more frenetic and menacing. The dancers are possibly costumed in something poignant and contemporary, such as Guy Fawkes masks, balaclavas, plague doctor masks, etc.
The music is a frenetic blitz of 90’s-style electronica, delivered with an anxious lead vocal to match. During a blistering guitar lead, the dancers reach their peak. In the outtro, the orchestra joins in to solidify major melodic themes that we will hear throughout and raise the temperature even more. The goal is to put the audience on edge in a way that doesn’t get resolved until the finale number and title song. At the climax of the song, Thomas collapses back into his chair and resumes his channel flipping, delivering the last line a cappella as the stage lights go down.