The Death of JFK

The Death of J.F.K. (2012)

Recorded at a vocal workshop in the University of Bristol.

Performed by Josephine Stephenson

This scene is taken from a hypothetical opera charting the events leading up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and its aftermath, in which I would also look at the effect shortly after the event and in later years, the assassination had on the United States of America and the World and how it has led to the rise of the conspiracy theory. The scene takes place in the newsroom of an American Network News station shortly after the assassination took place.

The libretto uses elements of an actual news broadcast given by Walter Cronkite on CBS News. Whilst the scene is composed in a relatively 'classical' style, inspiration was certainly taken through the choice of topic and libretto by John Adams' operas: Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and Dr. Atomic. The use of libretto composed from the original news broadcast adds an extra sense of realism, that I believed was vital to the scene's success in displaying the genuine shock and devastation felt by the people present in the newsroom and nation.

There is an air of panic and doubt as the news of the President's death is slowly being fed to the team. The scene begins with the anchor being lost in the panic and rush of information in the news room at the time, yet she tries to remain professional and calm. However, as the broadcast goes on and the details of the event become more real, the anchor loses control of her emotions and begins to display them through song.

The anchor's professionalism and calm is displayed at the beginning by the 'straight' singing style (bars 13-17). The melody attempts to resemble clear, spoken word through pitch, dynamics and rhythm. Yet as the anchor becomes more caught up in the turmoil and emotional through the scene, the melody becomes more atonal and dissonant, whilst also displaying various styles of singing including pitched and un-pitched whisper (bars 32-35 and 50-51).

The rush, confusion and panic of the news room is represented through the moving triplets throughout the piece. The newsroom would have been hearing various sources telling various stories throughout the broadcast and this is clearly seen in the video with Walter Cronkite, yet this is difficult to show through a solo singer without interaction with other characters. I decided that the accompaniment would be the best way in the scene to explore the idea as accompaniment can express a lot about a situation on another level from the singer.

The sudden changes of tonality also display emotion, in this case the shock of everyone watching and those involved in the broadcast of the news bulletin. The clear changes of tonality are seen in at bars 17 and 57 on the word 'dead'. This represents the clear change of mood of the broadcast as these are the most powerful moments, where the true extent of what has taken place is displayed.

The use of instrumentation is also crucial to the piece's atmosphere and drama. The piece opens with Strings and Celesta, evoking a feeling dream-like state. I wanted to evoke the supernatural feeling of the event; people witnessing this event could not fathom the concept that the President of the United States of America could be murdered in such a way. The Celesta plays the moving triplet motifs throughout the scene to reinforce this concept. The ensemble is also used at the its full capacity at the most dramatic of moments, where the emotion and tension in the newsroom would be at its peak.

Libretto

We have unconfirmed reports that President Kennedy is dead.

As yet, this is totally unconfirmed; we do not know this as fact,

These are rumours from the emergency room.

An assassin's bullets cut him down,

The incident took place just an hour ago.

The last sacraments,

President Kennedy is dead.