The Basement Among the Stars (2019)

General Information

Commissioner: Opera Elect
Written: March – April, 2019
Duration: ca. 25’
Instrumentation: 2 sopranos + mezzo-soprano + piano

Roles:
Henrietta Swan Leavitt: light lyric soprano
Annie Jump Cannon: light soprano
Williamina Fleming: lyric mezzo-soprano

Perusal Score

~ This score below is intended for perusal purposes only, and may not be used for performance. To obtain performance materials, please click here. Thank you! ~

Performance History

July 26, 2019: Opera Elect at the Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy, Boise, ID; Jordan Bowman (Henrietta Swan Leavitt), Edith Grace Dull (Annie Jump Cannon), Madeleine Bowman (Williamina Fleming), Chad Spears (piano) (World Premiere)
May 23, 2021: The Opera Theatre of Yale College; Jacqueline Kaskel (Henrietta Swan Leavitt), Lena Goldstein (Annie Jump Cannon), Lucy Ellis (Willimina Fleming), Peter Sykes (piano) (Digital Premiere)

Synopsis

Setting: Late 1890’s, in the basement of the Harvard Astronomical Observatory. Henrietta Leavitt is at a table in the basement of the Harvard Observatory, glancing back and forth between pictures of stars and a table. She believes she’s made an incredibly significant scientific discovery concerning Cepheid variable stars and is very excited. She’s interrupted by the entrance of two women. One is Annie Jump Cannon, about to start her first day of work at the observatory. The other is Williamina Fleming, the authority figure in charge of the two women at the observatory. Williamina teases Henrietta for coming in so early and mocks her for doing research, the sort of which at the time is only done by men. Henrietta is instantly deferential and apologized profusely. Williamina asks Henrietta to show Annie the work she will do: how to catalog the brightness of endless pictures of stars, which is very menial, laborious work.

Annie is a little dumbstruck, for she had thought she would be doing something more scientifically valuable than this and demands better work. Williamina responds that there is no better work and that she cannot be promoted as a consequence of her gender. When put to the decision of whether to stay or leave, Henrietta, seeking company, urges her to take the job, and Annie mentions her need for the money the job will provide. She determines to stay for at least a day. Williamina says she will return when lunch has been prepared and leaves. Annie begins doing work next to Henrietta. Henrietta tells Annie that the work she does isn’t so bad, and expresses that without this job, Annie would probably be out of work with nothing better to do - that she could do menial labor elsewhere, or here. And at least here she can fulfill, in a sense, her passion for astronomy.

Returning to work, the two are classifying stars out loud, when Annie, less familiar with star classification, uses a questionable acronym. Henrietta is not pleased. Annie comes across multiple pictures of Cepheid variable stars and makes a comment that these stars have always intrigued her. Annie realizes that Henrietta seems to be hiding something and remembers that Williamina mentioned earlier that Henrietta did her own astronomical research. After some convincing, Henrietta shares her recent discovery with Annie. Annie is extremely excited, telling her to try to publish her findings. Henrietta refuses, surmising that if she did so, she would be rejected on the basis of her sex, and her work would be stolen. Annie and Henrietta get into an argument, Annie suggesting that the findings are too important to be kept secret, Henrietta defending her own right to keep her work under her own control.

Williamina interrupts by entering, saying lunch has been prepared. She asks Annie to follow her. After Williamina leaves, Annie quotes Henrietta’s own words in a final plea for her to publish. Henrietta resolves that progress, and scientific truth, is what should be most important, not recognition. She pens a letter (and reciting out loud as she writes) to Edward Pickering, the director of the observatory, informing him of what she has found, and asks that she at least be mentioned in the paper he will write on it.

Program Note

I wrote The Basement Among the Stars in the short span of two months on request from Opera Elect, a company based in Boise, Idaho, for their summer new music series. They suggested I write on the subject of the Harvard Computers - a small group of women who made significant discoveries in astronomy but who have been largely forgotten by time. Specifically, Henrietta Leavitt discovered in the late 1890's a simple way to measure the distance of Cepheid variable stars from Earth. This allowed Edwin Hubble in the 1920's to conclude the existence of other galaxies beyond the Milky Way, which were previously thought to be large nebulae.

The opera is not entirely historically accurate - Annie Jump Cannon had been working at the Harvard observatory for a few years before Henrietta Leavitt made her discovery - but the liberties I took with the plot were taken in order to capture the spirit of the significance of the work these women did, in spite of the immensely difficult pressures and discrimination of the time.

It is an honor to be able to present my first opera. This piece is a labor of immense love, and I am incredibly thankful to Opera Elect for giving me the opportunity to create this work.