SPIRIT FIRE Act I
MUSIC DRAMA
-- WILLIAM MASELLI

THOMAS JEFFERSON
{TOM, son of Sally and Jefferson

{SALLY HEMINGS
{CHANTELLE, daughter of Sally and Jefferson

Scenes: Coast of France; Paris; New York; Monticello,Virginia.

SUMMARY

ACT ONE

Jefferson walks along the coast of France to meet his daughter arriving from America. He has been in France as the American Ambassador and has been active in discussions and planning concerning the emerging French Revolution. He enters a high meadow filled with cultivated flowers, being tended to at dawn by young women. They sing an enchantment known only to those blossoming in the spring of young love. After their refrain Jefferson laments his dead wife, the mother of his children. The women sing longingly of love and the sea. Jefferson’s daughter arrives to the strains of the sailors and shoremen, as Jefferson is shocked by a vision of his dead wife in her youth: it is Sally Hemings, his wife’s half-sister, born from his wife’s father and a slave renowned for her beauty and mixed blood. The action shifts to Jefferson’s bedroom balcony. There the brewing passion between the two blossoms into a fierce physical and spiritual union. Jefferson is toasted by the leaders of the revolution, who have gathered in Jefferson’s home to plan politics and strategy. A free woman in France but a slave if she returns to America with Jefferson, though Jefferson has vowed to ultimately free their unborn child and any others to follow, Sally agonizes over the tortuous choice between love and freedom and her destiny as a woman.

SPIRIT FIRE
ACT I

Scene: The coast of France, 1787, upon an eminence overlooking the harbor, cultivated fields of flowers.

Young Women:

Enchanted Morn!
Graced by thoughts of you!
Timeless and Enduring
Radiance of Love!

Jefferson:

Little Bird
I seek for you in darkened skies
I call for you with silent cries
What vision can you bear to me
Across the sea of Eternity?
Little Bird
Who sang in time with Love’s sweet rhyme
Floating on the winds of Time
Still pouring forth her melodies
Upon the breeze of Eternity!
I remember you O Timeless One!
I soared upon your wings
Little Bird
Once captured in a mortal cage
Your beauty conquered mortal rage
A precious gift you gave to me
Eternity in your love
Scene sounds the distant glow of passion past
O lightning flash!
Calm, my heart, at last!
I remember you O wondrous one
I sheltered ‘neath your wings
Little Bird
We conjure Life’s Immortal Glow
I stroke the stream our spirit’s flow
I never could erase your pain
Man’s tragedies remain!
But still my little bluebird sings
In my heart for all Eternity!

Young Women:

Feel the Heartbeat of the Sea!
Dance into the sacred grove
With lilting step
Behold!
Sweet fragrance of the roses’ bloom
Enlightens shadows from the moon
Entrancing!
O meadow lark, your melody
With what great spirit is in tune
Glancing o’er the golden noon
Which tears the morn from lovers’ eyes
And disregarding lovers’ sighs
Rushes forth the heat of day
Into earth our spirits lay
So soon the blazing sun does fall
Our souls return the starry call with Light!
Seek the pulse of All!
Sight and sound and scent and sea
Reverberate in harmony!
Eternity!
Feel the heartbeat of the sea!

Young Women and Boatmen:

Hail to the daughters of the sea!
Liberty in Mystery!

Sally :

What a magical land!
I am filled with hope and fear!

Scene: Paris; bedroom balcony.
Sally:

I feel a vision;
I see a mighty heart bound by chains of grief;
I see pain so intense the spirit screams like the wolf;
It’s cry sounds abroad the peaks and valleys of the mountains of Virginia.
Loved everywhere except to the very depths of your soul,
Where you are completely alone,
Bleeding, exhausted, weak with struggle.
I place my hand on your breast,
My blood rushes to your hidden chambers,
My prayers climb to glistening Light
And your Spirit soars within me.
By the Grace of God I heal you and grant you Freedom!
Do you know what’s been said?
What is truly believed?
That you consumed her heart with extreme conjury,
By invoking divine spirits through enchanting music,
In so rare a form that the entire scene
And the union itself
Was blessed by God.
And the song itself, I believe you still remember it.
I believe you could sing it.
I believe the crystal moon and the diamond stars,
The rising breath of the very soul of the earth,
Have set the stage,
And I am an eager heart to be won by you.
Music’s Eyes are the Universe
Exploding
Screaming beams of primal Light,
Tearing force of destruction of ancient form:
Music’s eyes are the soul of Creation.

Jefferson:

Music’s eyes are volcanoes
Breathing
Massive weight of earth and fire
Passion seething blazing searing stone and sea:
Music’s eyes are the blood of desire.

Jefferson and Sally:

Music’s eyes are the prophets of God
Caressing
Gracing streams flowing peace,
Willing winds embracing vision, faith:
Music’s eyes are the singing stars!

Scene: Paris, Jefferson residence:

Lafayette:

The blazing questions of the day
We have discussed and been enlightened on by our American comrade;
With so much resolved,
Let us break to taste wine;
Let it torch our blood with freedom’s desire.
We honor tonite the man who has won us all
By the purity of his spirit,
By the burning passion which lights his heart,
And for the lion courage which flashes for the world,
Illuminating the highest peaks of Man and God.
Hail! To this Son of God
Who combats with the Fire of the stars!

Leaders of the Revolution:

Hail!

Jefferson:

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
The earth has moved
And the Race is arising!

Leaders of the Revolution:

He has led the way for the freedom of Man!
Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
The earth has moved and the Race is arising!

Jefferson:

The stars embrace the searching Son!

Leaders of the Revolution:

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
The stars embrace the searching Son!

Scene: Bedroom Balcony

Sally:

And he swore that he would never again marry!
Marriage!
What a fantasy for this lost child.
I am no one:
I do not exist.
Oh, Paris, the warm blood of your heart pulses through me!
Alive and bursting with Life’s passion!
Oh, fire of my spirit,
That burns a sacred duty upon me;
That pours the flow of Love
That has become the very breath of my existence.
And my growing child,
Forming from chaos and the enslaving void
Into a sword to grace the right hand of God.
Where do I lay this sacred claim?
Oh mystery in liberty
And liberty in Love!