The Children of the Keweenaw recounts events surrounding the Italian Hall Tragedy, which took place on Christmas Eve of 1913 in the copper mining city of Calumet, on Michigans Keweenaw Peninsula. 74 people, including many children, lost their lives in a stampede, which occurred in response to a false cry of Fire! The story explores public memory of the tragedy from a number of perspectives and is seen through the eyes of a narrator and an Oral History Ensemble, as well as through representation of historical and fictional characters. The operas timeframe changes fluidly and frequently.
Part I After an overture played
by the Calumet and Hecla (C&H) Mining Company Band, Pat Murphy, a Park Historian,
and the Ensemble address the audience, vowing to tell the story as best they
know it, acknowledging that "what's true for me may not be true for you."
We see five children, one of whom is the young Anna Clements, playing
a jump rope game devised from the names of the copper and iron mines of upper
Michigan. Pat introduces Anna, and the scene shifts
to the last summer of Anna's life, in Chicago, 1956. Anna, a milliner by trade, is applying the finishing touches to
a wedding veil, while strains of the blues are heard through the window. Annas daughter, Darwina, presses her mother,
who is ill, to return north. When
Darwina urgently questions Anna on the forbidden topic of her long-absent
father, Frank Shavs, he appears in Annas vision. Anna shows Darwina the red stones she took
away with her from Lake Superior and her youth in the Keweenaw. Pat picks up Annas stones, returning us to
the present and to his passion, the copper mining industry and the immigrant
populations that came to the Keweenaw Peninsula in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries to work the mines. Two members of the Oral History Ensemble sing a section of The Kalevala (the Finnish national epic)
about a bride's conflicted feelings on the eve of her wedding. The chorus sings a hymn in Slovene, as Pat
describes the beauty and function of the many churches of Calumet, including
St. Joseph's, the scene of Anna's wedding.
The timeframe shifts to 1906, and Anna is now seen as a bride with
her own mother, Mary Klobuchar. They
put the finishing touches on Anna's wedding veil, while Joe Clemenc, Annas
intended, has a bachelors last drink with his best friends. As the wedding guests dance to a Slovenian
waltz, we see another vision of Frank Shavs approaching Anna to dance. Suddenly a steam whistle blows, signaling a
mine accident. James MacNaughton,
General Manager of C & H, presides at the accident scene, concluding that
the company will pay no death benefit to the victim's family and notifying
the surviving wife by telegram. A
man from the Oral History Ensemble reads a letter to MacNaughton from mine
worker Thomas Paull, asking forgiveness for some acts of petty larceny Paull
committed while employed at the C & H Mine.
MacNaughton sings his aria, "I Cannot Forgive, as he struggles with
his position of authority.
Part II Fall of 1913, Calumet. The copper miners are striking against C&H
over wage, safety and collective bargaining issues. The striking miners man the picket lines and
attempt to repel scab workers. A woman from the Ensemble sings the recollections
of Polly, who remembers parading strikers tromping through her mother's garden.
While the strikers jeer, the Citizen's Alliance, an association of merchants
and businessmen opposed to the strike, parade through, led by members of the
C & H band. MacNaughton tries to calm
the crowd, but they shout him down and bring out labor activist Mother Jones
to speak on their behalf. The strikers, led by Anna, parade once again, and
are confronted by the state militia. Anna drapes herself in an American flag, daring
the strike-breakers to shoot her. She
is arrested and becomes a local hero. Anna's friend, Treesa, asks Anna to head the ladies' auxiliary
of the local Western Federation of Miners.
Anna accepts and suggests they organize a Christmas party for the children
of the strikers. Frank Shavs, a reporter
from Chicago who has become fascinated with Anna, seeks her out as she makes
preparations for the party at the Italian Hall. He encourages her to speak even more boldly
"to the whole world," and demonstrates vividly how she might confront James
MacNaughton with the workers' demands. Anna
discovers that she can find the words, and also that Frank has fallen in love
with her. He begs her to marry him and come away with him to Chicago.
A few days later, as Anna gathers stones out by the lake, Frank again
presses her to marry him, and she sings her aria "I Am of This Place," telling
him that only a love as strong as the forces of nature could move her from
her home and her cause. Joe Clemenc confronts Anna when she returns
home, imploring her to stay with him at least until Christmas.
Part III Pat, holding the red stones, relates the legend of the spirit/goddess
of Manitou Island, who appeared to three early Ojibway copper gatherers.
The men had collected chunks of native copper and used them to boil
their soup by immersing the heated chunks into the liquid.
Upon drinking the soup, they saw the Manitou approaching them, asking,
"Are you trying to steal my children?" As
the story goes, two of the men died instantly, and the third lived long enough
to return to his camp and tell what he had seen.
Pat posits scientific and supernatural interpretations of the legend.
Part I - Christmas Eve, 1913, at the Italian Hall, six months into the strike.
A young child dances, and Anna and Treesa talk of the length of the
strike. The children shout for Santa Claus, and Anna cajoles them into singing
a carol. To avoid a rush to the stage for presents, Anna and Treesa have
the children count off in groups, and while the children are lining up, someone
shouts "Fire!" and the scene dissolves in chaos.
Part II December 31, 1913 at the Calumet City Council Chambers. Pat assumes the character of Anthony Lucas,
who questioned witnesses at the coroners inquest following the disaster. First to testify is Treesa. Next is Charles Meyers, the manager of the
grocery store below the Italian Hall. Then
Lucas hears the contradictory testimony of two children, Annie Bader and Johnny
Burcar. Next, Maria Bono, mother of a child who died in the stampede, describes
her experience of hearing the commotion from the downstairs tavern.
Then a Cornish miner, John James, tells of eating saffron cake in the
kitchen of the Hall as the stampede began.
After a relentless interrogation of Anna by Lucas, the inquest ends
with an ensemble of voices, each recounting the story from a different point
of view. The scene shifts to Anna and MacNaughtons duet, I Am to Blame,
as each fights the feeling of responsibility for the tragic events.
Anna mourns, and Joe tells her bitterly she was lucky not to have children
of her own to lose. Anna and Joe separate,
Darwina and Frank join Anna, and her past and future come together. A man steps out from the Oral History Ensemble
to remember Anna in a letter written by her youngest brother, Frankie Klobuchar.
Pat describes the funerals of the Italian Hall victims, held at the
various churches of Calumet. The chorus begins the Calumet Requiem, and
all members of the cast join in, commemorating each of those who died. Pat returns, alone, to conclude his telling
of this story "for all tomorrows," and the orchestra, quoting from the vocal
lines of the conflicting accounts of these events, brings the opera to an
end with its music of public memory.