THE WOMAN AT
OTOWI CROSSING
Opera in Two Acts
Libretto by Joan Vail Thorne based on the novel by Frank Waters
Duration: 2 hours
Librettist Joan Vail Thorne writes, "For the woman at Otowi Crossing, the earth was a miracle."
This opera is a fictionalized story based on the real person, Edith Warner, who lived at Otowi
Crossing in New Mexico from 1928 to 1951.
Her tea room at the old railway station served as a kind of bridge between the ancient Pueblo
culture and the U.S. government installation at Los Alamos where the atom bomb was developed.
Helen Chalmers (Edith) becomes a person of insight into the unity and harmony of all life, and in
the process of dying she learns how to live. Those first atomic scientists took from her hope that
people of intelligence and goodwill understood their sense of crisis. They lived together as
community during a time of great conflicts.
This work, incredibly relevant to 21st-century anxieties, was noted by the New Mexican as, "an
interpretation of a rich human personality,...heart-wrenchingly beautiful music."
Setting:
The action takes place in New Mexico, c. 1944, principally in and around the house and tea room
of Helen Chalmers, beside the Rio Grande River, somewhere between the San Ildefonso Pueblo
and Los Alamos
Cast of Characters:
Helen Chalmers, Soprano
Emily Chalmers, Helen’s daughter, Mezzo Soprano
Jack Turner, a journalist, Baritone
Tilano, an old Indian, Bass-Baritone
Joel Edmund, a young scientist, Tenor
Tranquillino, a young Indian, Baritone
Additional roles:
FBI investigator, Baritone
Soldier, Baritone
2 Brujas, religious sealotsMezzo Sopranos
3 Scientists:
Dr. Breslau, Baritone
"Mr. Baker" (code name for Niels Bohr, a scientist), Baritone
"Mr. Farmer" (code name for Enrico Fermi, a scientist), Bass-Baritone
3 Scientists’ Wives ("Women from the Hill"):
Lucy, Soprano
Martha, Soprano
Harriet, Mezzo Soprano
Maria, Tranquillino’s wife, Soprano
A Chorus of Indian Spirits (16 women’s voices and 16 men’s voices)
Instrumentation :
Orchestra: 2(2.pic)-2-2-2; 2-2-1-1(b tbn); timp, perc (2); hp; celeste (no piano);
Chorus; str 10-8-6-6-4
Commission and Premiere:
Commissioned by Opera Theatre of St. Louis
to celebrate its 20th Season
Premiere Performances: June 15, 17, 21, 23, 1995
Published by European American Music
