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Opera Music Plot Synopsis
Cadman: Shanewis
Cast of Characters:
Mrs. J. Asher Everton, a prominent California club woman (Contralto)
Amy Everton, her daughter (Soprano)
Shanewis, an educated Indian singer, Mrs. Everton's protege
(Mezzo Soprano)
Lionel Rhodes, a wealthy young architect; Amy's fiance(Tenor)
Philip Harjo, a young Indian, foster brother of Shanewis (Baritone)
California society people; Oklahoma Indians, half-breeds and
whites
Scene:
Part One:
Southern California
Part Two:
an Oklahoma Indian Reservation
Time: The Present
Argument
[The following synopsis, taken from the published score, is
by the author, Nelle
Richmond Eberhart.]
Mrs. J. Asher Everton, a wealthy widow and prominent club
woman of southern
California, has become interested in Shanewis, a beautiful
educated Indian girl
of musical promise, sending her to New York for vocal training.
After several
years' study, Shanewis is invited by her benefactress to spend
the summer in her
bungalow by the sea. A few days before, Amy Everton has returned
home from a
long trip abroad following her graduation from Vassar and,
in honor of both
girls, Mrs. Everton gives a dinner dance and musicale. Shanewis,
who does not
dine before singing, makes her first appearance before Mrs.
Everton's guests
when she comes into the music room to sing.
Her initial number, "The Spring Song of the Robin Woman,"
a Tsimshian legend,
together with the thrilling quality of her voice, her undoubted
histrionic
ability, and her engaging smile, create a sensation even among
the older, more
critical guests.
Lionel Rhodes, the childhood sweetheart and acknowledged fiance
of Amy, is
fascinated by the charm and novelty of Shanewis. He sees first
her photograph
which, he declares, recalls to his memory a beautiful face
which had attracted
him in Arizona two or three years before. Upon meeting her,
he names her
immediately "Enchantress," "The Robin Woman"
who calls springtime to the heart,
and he makes impetuous love to her behind a screen of palms
while the guests are
out on the terrace dancing. Shanewis is at first shy, but,
finally, not knowing
of his engagement to the daughter of her benefactress, she
yields to his wooing
conditionally. The condition is that he go with her to her
home on the
reservation to see if her family be any bar to his regard.
He consents and their
interview is terminated by the entrance of Amy with a young
man who seeks the
next dance with the Indian girl. Surprised and annoyed by
their evident
confusion at her interruption, Amy jealously protests to Lionel,
and is not
re-assured by his half-hearted efforts to propitiate her.
She begins to fear
that her long absence has weakened the bond between her and
her lover. Throwing
herself upon his breast she cries, "Ah, suppose you ceased
to love me!" At this
moment, the clock strikes twelve and the guests hasten in
to take their
departure. They congratulate Mrs. Everton and Shanewis, rallying
Amy, teasingly,
about her lover's interest in the Indian girl. As the guests
disappear through
the hall door, Shanewis switches off the music room lights
and stands in the
moonlight alone, dreaming of the romance which has so suddenly
come to her.
The second part takes place in Oklahoma a few days later.
With a plausible
excuse, Shanewis has left Mrs. Everton for the reservation
where Lionel has
secretly followed her. They are discovered watching the closing
scene of a big
summer pow wow. Instead of being repelled, the gay and brilliant
pageant, the
mingling of traditional, of transitional and of modern Indian
life appeals to
his strong sense of the picturesque. He watches with lively
interest the crowds
about the refreshment booths, the gay blankets, the Indian
mothers with babies
in cradle-boards, the dancers in regalia, and the white visitors
in holiday
attire. The ceremonial songs, even, move him strangely, so
that his impulsive
love for Shanewis grows stronger in the vivid atmosphere which
belongs to her.
Therefore when Philip Harjo, a fanatical young Indian devoted
to the old
traditions, presents Shanewis with a poisoned arrow once used
by a maiden of the
tribe to revenge herself upon a white betrayer, he is piqued
and assures Harjo
that Shanewis will never have use for such a weapon.
Harjo, the foster brother of Shanewis, is an idealist who
has brooded over the
wrongs of his people until he has acquired a morbid hatred
of the white race and
resents all attempts at modern civilization. From childhood
he has loved
Shanewis, but as she grew older and became ambitious for musical
training, he
kept his passion secret, hoping she would fail to win recognition
and be driven
by her failure back to her tribe and his love. Her love for
a white man comes
like a blow to his hopes and his traditions. He is suspicious
of Lionel's
impulsive attachment and, throughout the pow wow he watches
his chance to prove
his rival faithless.
Lionel and Shanewis attract much attention especially among
the white people. A
Jazz Band of young people serenades them, and young high school
girls hover
around allured by the handsome Californian. Lionel begs Shanewis
to leave early
but she insists on staying to the end. When the crowd has
nearly all departed,
the booths have been stripped, and Shanewis has accepted the
poisoned arrow from
Harjo, Mrs. Everton and Amy hasten up in traveling costume.
They strive to check
Lionel's mad infatuation for Shanewis. He refuses absolutely
to return with them
and declares anew his love for Shanewis. But the Indian girl,
learning for the
first time of his engagement to Amy, rejects his love with
scorn. She insists
upon surrendering him to Amy, thus repaying her debt to Mrs.
Everton.
Passionately she denounces the white race and its dealings
with her people. She
then declares her intention of retiring from civilization
to seek refuge in the
forest, near to God, to recover from her wound. Recognizing
the evolutionary
distance between her and that other maid who sought revenge
for treachery, she
throws the bow and arrow far from her.
Though all the other Indians had left at the beginning of
the altercation,
Philip Harjo watches the scene from behind a tree. As Shanewis
repulses Lionel,
Harjo rushes out, snatches up the bow and arrow and shoots
the young man
straight in the heart. Shanewsi runs back; she and Amy kneel
beside him, while
Mrs. Everton frantically attempts to drag Amy from the scene.
Shanewis looks
upward, saying, "'Tis well. In death thou art mine!"
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