Ben Leeds Carson composes Star Trek opera
A Star Trek opera? Why not? That’s exactly what Ben Leeds Carson thought when approached by Lincoln and Lee Taiz. The renowned plant physiologist and his wife had originally approached electronic music pioneer David Cope with their libretto for an opera based on the first episode of the original Star Trek TV series. Cope was booked up and suggested Carson, a UCSC professor of music and experimental music composer. So it began. “Once a month for the past three or so years,” Carson says, “I’d call up Linc and Lee. We’d have dinner together while I played and sang the music I’d done thus far.”
Ensconced in his Kresge College study, where he currently serves as Provost, the lanky blond composer admits that the process has been incredible fun. “All operas ultimately contain an Orpheus theme,” he says. “And this one—called Menagerie: The Trial of Spock—invokes that myth as a play within a play.” Gene Roddenberry’s scenario of an early voyage on the Enterprise forms Menagerie’s theme. “The trial of Spock—which makes up the bulk of our story—is amplified with tricks of virtual reality as it parallels Orpheus’ journey to the underworld, with Spock on trial for mysteriously abducting Captain Pike, James T. Kirk’s predecessor,” Carson explains. Now trapped in a coma, Pike needs virtual reality healing by another Orpheus, who will be played by a young female. Throughout the complex plotting, Carson and Taiz have reinforced that compelling Star Trek motif of Spock’s evolving self-awareness. “J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie reinvents the Spock/Kirk relationship. And so will our opera,” Carson says, beaming. “Star Trek is an American myth, and Spock is a great American hero.”
Composing for opera is a new twist in Carson’s repertoire. “A substantial part of my work has been in the study of music perception,” he says. Hired by UCSC as a specialist in musical cognition 12 years ago, Carson has been a prolific experimental composer, highly engaged in interrupting conventional paradigms of pulse and rhythm. “I’d made it my goal to make un-pulsed music. Creating each musical event as a surprise, a floating experience letting go of time, to see if we as listeners could move from irregular back into the regular rhythms—even if it meant sacrificing most of the audience,” he says. “For the past 15 years I was not afraid to have the music be un-beautiful.”
But then Star Trek came his way. “Linc got permission from CBS to develop our project for limited non-commercial presentations,” he says. “I found their text lovely and I immediately started writing. Linc is a jazz guitarist in his own right, by the way, and both he and his wife are passionate devotees of opera.”
For this project Carson reached back into his personal music theater roots. “It was a time to write emotionally immediate music—and this was inspired by hopelessly romantic pop opera,” Carson says.
Here’s how he began sketching out music for the opera. “I draw on improvisational instincts at the piano. I play, make notes, then play some more. Then I imagine it as an orchestra, begin filling in the instruments, then play a bit more. And the music takes shape in Midi files.” Carson works to create compelling dramatic music, “and I write a lot of it even if I’m not sure which character might use it,” he says. Later he chooses specific music for the characters. “I enjoy playing with contrasts of emotions,” he says. A scene in which Scotty complains about an engine room breakdown is set to music building to a passionate emotional climax. Carson enjoyed writing the parts for James T. Kirk in clipped syncopation, matching actor William Shatner’s familiar vocal delivery. Carson believed gender switching for Menagerie was crucial. “We wanted more women’s voices and parts,” he says.
“Linc and Lee and I listened, commented, and rewrote. We had lots of wonderful fights—it was a great collaboration,” Carson says. “Last February I started shopping the opera to four companies, and so far no doors are closed.”
When fully staged, the opera will run two hours. Meanwhile, a minimally produced debut of the opera will be presented this June at UCSC, to be directed by John De Lancie (who played “Q” in Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes). “He has directed lots of opera and even did a sci-fi Madame Butterfly,” Carson notes. “We will present it as an oratorio, with minimal set, recruiting singers from the Bay Area to perform.”
Work on the Star Trek project has encouraged Carson to create music on a bolder scale, as he puts it, “blending the emotionally immediate with the experimental.” But he also admits that the project took a lot longer than he expected.
Find out more about and listen to Menagerie: The Trial of Spock: startrekopera.com.
WHERE NO COMPOSER HAS GONE BEFORE Ben Leeds Carson in his home studio in Santa Cruz. PHOTO: CHIP SCHEUER
