Figure 6 A still from the stop motion of paper flowers. Flower props created by Niambi Robinson, stop motion created by Roxanne Korda. Source: Roxanne Korda
Chapter 2 - 'Librettising' Astrophysics to create The Flowering Desert
2.1 Introduction
2.4.d Developing the Character of Planet-e: Pantele
In response to reading about the anima and animus, alongside TRAPPIST-1, I made narrative and character choices which focused a large amount on the concept of life, exploring themes around both its creation and discovery. Jung’s description of the anima is related to the trajectory of the two heroes in this piece (the Measurer and Pantele) as well as search for life in astrophysics:
Although she may be the chaotic urge to life something strangely meaningful clings to her, a secret knowledge or hidden wisdom which contrasts most curiously with her hidden elfin nature. (Jung, 1954: 30)11
For Jung the presence of the anima and animus can lead to a union of opposites (masculine in woman, and feminine in man), that will bring us to the point of individuation, which he named the “syzygy”. The syzygy traditionally signifies a masculine-feminine pairing, or a conscious acceptance of the anima in men, and the animus in women. However, more recent work by scholars such as Mario Saiz et. al. (2023) has highlighted the importance of including androgyny in the development of theoretical and clinical practices around the psychology of the anima/animus, as well as considering feminine-feminine and masculine-masculine pairings (TePaske, 2017). This development of the archetype is valuable in maintaining its use and relevance in a contemporary setting.
Interestingly the term “syzygy” also has a meaning in astronomy, as it refers to the alignment of three or more celestial bodies. In the search for exoplanets the use of transits requires another type of syzygy as the earth must be lined up with the distant star and its orbiting planet, for us to notice the planet as it transits the star.
Figure 5 Astronomical Syzygy. Jupiter (top), Venus (lower left), and Mercury (lower right) above La Silla Observatory where the TRAPPIST-1 system was discovered (May 26, 2013). Source: ESO (European Southern Observatory)
2.4.d.i Pantele’s shadow and self
The planet Pantele (or our fictional TRAPPIST-1e) is on a process of self-discovery throughout the opera, and is also moving towards becoming more conscious of their own existence, developing an identity of interest outside of the TRAPPIST-1 system, and separate from the control and influence of the Mother Star. It is on a journey of individuation that is unlocked by physical traumas (tidal heating and panspermia) which lead it to becoming habitable. These will be explored further in the next section.
Pantele’s physical property of being tidally locked to the star TRAPPIST-1a (like the Moon to the Earth) causes its surface to be made up of two faces of contrasting extremes. One side of the planet experiences extreme heat and radiation facing the Mother Star, while the other always faces away from the Mother Star and is extremely cold and dark. There is a circumference of the planet’s surface which experiences a constant sunrise or sunset, named the terminator. It is predicted that the tidal locking would generate extreme weather systems, taking dust and material in strong winds from one side of the planet to the other (Grimm et al., 2018). The duality of climates on the planet is reminiscent of the connection between the conscious and subconscious archetypes of the Shadow and the Persona/Ego as well as the conflicting parts of oneself that are referenced in the process of individuation. To express these dichotomies that lie within Pantele, the character introduces themselves through a poem which makes use of both the discovered facts of planet TRAPPIST-1e and also introduces the terms shadow and self, in reference to the psyche of the Measurer. This poem was not read in the dress rehearsal but during the performance we read each of the characters’ introductory poems during the overture (below p. 1-2, lines 24-37).
Pantele:
(self)I the planet Pantele
(self) One side never night
(shadow) One side never bright
(shadow)With a shadow as strong as my self
(shadow) Formed just as my mother star
(self) From the rubble of her welding parts
(shadow)With a shadow as strong as myself
(shadow) Every three years I see my neighbour twice
(self) Every two years I see my neighbour thrice
(self)I the planet Pantele
(shadow)With a shadow as strong as my self
(self) A dusky cage of persistent sunrise
(shadow) The terminator where light dies
(self)I the planet Pantele
Here we can see clearly the battle between the shadow and the self (persona/ego). The self begins with a strong declaration of identity, but the shadow soon takes control leading the recitation for a short while. The self takes back control as the shadow starts to think of the other planets in the system, and move away from thoughts of the star. Both the shadow and self speak for 7 lines, embodying the total amount of planets in the system (b, c, d, e, f, g and h).
Pantele’s main aria occurs in scene 1 when it discovers from Xoe that it may have a purpose outside of the system. Pantele becomes aware of the human’s gaze, and becomes excited by what new identity and meaning it may have when seen through these new eyes. Here the dark side of the planet (the shadow and the outward facing side) is more hopeful and able to inspire the light side of the planet, the self, to be awakened to the possibilities for transformation. The extreme winds that would likely exist on planet TRAPPIST-1e's surface carry the messages from the shadow to the self, awakening the merging archetypes of the subconscious (the anima/animus and the shadow) with the conscious self to begin the process of individuation of Pantele, and change the mindset of the Measurer. Please go to timecode 00:13:26 (first half) (below p. 3-4, lines 70-83).
Aria for two halves of the self
Pantele:
(self) What does Xoe mean?
(shadow) What does Xoe mean?
(shadow) I can see the world outside
Kaleidoscopic distant eyes
I spied to them and now it seems
That one is spying back on me
Dark winds blow to wake my soul
And carry thoughts to make me whole
(self) These smarting Coriolis winds
Whip up the sands, make thoughts spin
I never dreamt I’d ever be
Known out there in the galaxy
Another star-bound family?
Someone there is watching ME!
Pantele’s process of syzygy or individuation is bound up in their journey to becoming habitable. The other characters of the system play vital roles in this task. The events necessary to develop the conditions for life (tidal heating and panspermia) signpost key moments in Pantele’s narrative, as it changes from uninhabitable –and so uninteresting to the human gaze – to habitable, and so of greater relevance to humans. At the start of scene 4 Pantele comments on changes to herself saying (below p. 10, lines 217-219):
Pantele:
(self) You’ve made me so afraid
(shadow) But this coloured peripheral vortex
Is soothing all my scars.
Then in her final moments, once her individuation is completed with the help of the Mother Star and Xoe (who also represent various parts of the psyche whose alignment has led to this process) she responds with a simple gratitude. Please go to timecode 00:29:15 (second half) (below p. 11, lines 248-254).
Hymn
Pantele:
The airs I blow have hope
A field protects my face
Thank you Mother
Thank you Xoe
This is then reflected by the Measurer’s last thoughts in the subsequent mélodrame (4). The projections in this moment convert into a stop-motion of flowers created by myself and Birmingham School of Art student Niambi Robinson. It is at this moment that Pantele, a previously barren planet, is fully connected to the flowering of the Atacaman desert. We decided in the final cycle to remove the cut in projections between scene 4 and mélodrame 4 to signify this moment in which the fictional world of the system and the experiential world of the Measurer combine.
2.4.d.ii Pantele’s traumas
As already mentioned, the two processes that lead to the development of Pantele’s psyche and the transition towards habitability are tidal heating and panspermia. Tidal heating is the internal geological activity of a planet caused by the various gravitational forces affecting it (Breuer et al., 2022). This could lead to both the outcropping of gases to the planet’s surface, the heating of the planet and the formation of a small magnetic field (Tsang et al., 2016; Kerswell & Malkus, 1998; Bland et al., 2008; Turbet et al., 2020). Tidal heating is represented and explored poetically in scene 3. The Mother Star provides the gravitational force, alongside the other orbiting planets, to create an effect of tidal heating, which would provide a constant geothermal heat source inside the planet. The interaction between these inner convection currents, and the planet's own rotation also has potential to contribute to a magnetic field around a planet. Planet-e spins once on its axis every 9.21 days (TRAPPIST-1. 2019) meaning that it is not likely to have as strong a magnetic field as Earth (which spins once every 24 hours), however other planets in our Solar System with much slower spins (such as Mercury’s 59 days (NASA, 2023)) do still have weak magnetic fields, so it may have the ability to form some kind of protective magnetic shield. The reason this would be helpful is that it would help to deflect the harmful protonic bombardment ejected by the star (Struminsky, 2018).12
As Pantele is the character upon which the creation of life can occur, and it is Pantele’s goal to set about creating the right environment for life, it has a clear connection to the Prometheus creation story. The stealing of the fire from the gods could be equated to both the use of the parent star's tidal heating and radiating forces, to generate a magnetic field, and also to the fundamental particles for life carried by the comet Xoe (Graves & Guirand, 1968). When Xoe explains to Pantele her necessary destiny for habitability Xoe tells Pantele to steal from her mother’s gravitational energy (grasp) which may at first appear to be a weapon against Pantele, but if used in the right way could also protect Pantele from her mother’s bombardment (through the process of generating a magnetic field with tidal heating) (below p. 8, lines 166-170):
First –
Your mother’s grasp is strong
She holds and governs you.
But you can start to tame her-
Turn her weaponry to armour!
In the libretto it is Xoe who first describes the process of tidal heating. In the below section from scene 3, I structured the rhyme scheme so that it is vertically symmetrical, in order to reflect the internal movement of geological fluid from the centre outwards and back again. Please go to timecode 00:10:45 (second half) (below p. 8, lines 178-183).
Xoe:
Your mother has been tugging
Within you is a friction
The outward eccentricity
Now dissipates internally
And caused a deformation
While underneath a bubbling
Later in the scene Pantele herself refers directly to the process saying: Please go to timecode 00:12:20 (second half) (p. 8-9, lines 190-193).
Pantele:
(Self)
As I let my mother pull me
My skins crack to release a moan
Active and sore to my core
A heated tidal bulge
The scene ends with the process of tidal heating fulfilling its role to help Pantele generate the magnetic field it needs, which can be seen to exist through the presence of an aurora. At this point in the projections the aurora is created from a wood cut-out designed by both Yuan Wang and Amy Bradley, which imitates the flower design embroidered on Pantele’s tabard. In order to create the image from the object we filmed its shadow (please see fig 7). This was to explore and embed further the collection of data on exoplanets from witnessing their transits, and effectively becoming shadowed by them as they pass in front of their star.
In the next scene the comet Xoe collides with Pantele, fulfilling the theory of Panspermia which suggests that the elements to create life are carried throughout the universe by objects such as exocomets, which crash into planets (Wickramasinghe et al. 2018). I will discuss this process and its appearance in libretto further in the section on Xoe.
2.4.d.iii Collaborative development of Pantele
During the first cycle of collaborative work I discussed the myths that I felt best represented the characters. Many creation stories start with a being that exists before the rest of the world, and through whom the world is formed. These beings are often characterised as lonely, and their desire for having more, or for companionship, is what leads to the creation of the Earth as humans know it. The Finno-Ugric creation story features the character Luonnotar 13, the daughter of nature, who has a deep sensation of longing and loneliness as they float alone on the sea. This helped to inform Pantele’s isolation as a tidally locked planet around a star, and the desire for something greater than its current experience. The eagle in the Finno-Ugric story here is also similar to the comet character, as a flying celestial object looking for a home, that finally lands on Luonnotar, laying eggs which enable the creation of the earth (Graves & Guirand, 1968). This mirrors the process of Panspermia which occurs at the end of the opera.
The eagle in the Finno-Ugric story here is also similar to the comet character, as a flying celestial object looking for a home, that finally lands on Luonnotar, laying eggs which enable the creation of the earth. This mirrors the process of Panspermia which occurs at the end of the opera. Figure 8 from the film of scene 1, created in the first cycle towards developing the opera’s performativity, shows Pantele layered on top of a film of a boat in water. We had decided to make use of the imagery of a lonely boat on a vast body of water in response to various creation myths, including the Finno-Ugric one described above. Even though this footage did not make it to the final projections in the dome, we still retained a sense of it by keeping a dark blue colour for one half of Pantele during her aria.
Alexander Kaniewski also created an initial costume for Pantele during this first cycle. After workshopping the character he decided to give her a white dress to signify her innocence and youthful attitude, a hat and red sash to show her submission and restriction from the Mother Star. In the second cycle we added a tabard which would be turned over to display green painted and embroidered flowers when the collision happens in scene 4. In the final cycle we adapted this piece of costume in response to feedback from Alexander so that the green was more noticeable and it could be easily pulled down rather than turned over. This work was not completed until after the dress rehearsal shown in the video. See pictures of Pantele’s costume below in figure 9.
During the first collaborative cycle I also workshopped the vocal and musical characteristics of each character with Daniel. We decided that Pantele should be sung by a mezzo-soprano who could provide different vocal characteristics for the self and the shadow. For Pantele’s music Daniel had decided to use the music developed for Planet-e. Initially Daniel had some fears that there might not be enough material to generate a score for the whole of the character's parts. However, upon further inspection of his study he realised that there are in fact 2 chords and 2 inversions (4 chords in total) of different modes. This provided the perfect accompaniment for Pantele’s two halves. We both felt that the darker side should be associated with the major chord, as this side is more open and has a broader, brighter experience of the universe.The light side took the minor chord as this side is constrained to always face the star and as such is almost a prisoner of it. As the music moves through these chords and inversions the audience can start to feel Pantele’s internal psychological journey and growth. Only at the point of trauma or anagnorisis, where the collision occurs, does Pantele’s harmonic material be combined with Xoe’s, signalling a rebirth
In the final cycle of the work we decided to make use of make-up to further express the properties of the subjects. For Pantele we asked art student Vianna Mistry to develop the design shown in Figure 10 which literally displays the dark and light side of the planet, with the terminator in between. We also asked for the wind to be acknowledged within the design, which can be seen in the detailed swirls.
