Drama & Ballet Libretti
This is the Drama & Ballet Libretti section of the catalog of Lincoln Kirstein's Published Writings. View all entries in Drama & Ballet Libretti or narrow your search by using the Search tool box. Below is a Libretto for the ballet Pocahontas, 1936.
When the English adventurers sailed into the bay formed by
the outlet of the Virginia rivers, they still thought that the
strange new land might be a part of the East Indian Spice Isles.
The people they found, subject to King Powhatan, were by no
means the red nomads of our Western plains, but rather the
gold-brown village-dwelling hunters and farmers which have
since completely disappeared.
When John Smith came here he was middle aged. He had
fought the Turks and was an experienced adventurer. He
accepted the cruel tortures of Powhatan's braves as the possible
price of another adventure. But the capricious pity of a young
Indian princess was something new. Pocahontas seemed disgusted
by the savagery of her kinsmen. Instinctively she felt the
dawn of a new civilization. Yet the most acceptable gifts of the
white men were firearms and fire-water, scarcely an improvement
over tobacco and tomahawk. Guns and whiskey purchased
the Indians. A handful of English seized America. Pocahontas
married Rolfe, a young protégé of Smith, was presented at the
court of James I, and died in England, bearing Rolfe's child. For
us she symbolizes the naïve trust and inherent tragedy of original
Americans.
The general character and atmosphere of the ballet were suggested
by Hart Crane's "The Dance," a section of his longer poem
"The Bridge."
- Smith and Rolfe lost in the Virginia Forest
- The Indians ambush John Smith
- Princes Pocahontas and her Ladies
- Smith is tortured by Indians and saved by Pocahontas
- Smith presents young Rolfe to Pocahontas
- Rolfe and Pocahontas dance
- Pavane, Farewell of Indians, Pocahontas and Rolfe sail for England
© Eakins Press Foundation & Ballet Society, Inc., 2013 | Resources