Synopsis
Synopsis
The setting
Everest, May 10–11, 1996. Bad weather has affected this year’s climbing season, and now multiple expeditions are attempting to reach the summit on the same day. A bottleneck of climbers at the notorious Hillary Step has delayed the progress of Rob Hall’s group and he now finds himself near the top of the mountain with his client Doug Hansen, long after the agreed turnaround time has passed. Unbeknown to the two mountaineers, a ferocious storm is brewing below. Meanwhile, further down the mountain, another of Rob’s clients, Beck Weathers, lies unconscious as the storm rages around him.
Synopsis
From the shadows of Mount Everest, the spirits of all those who have died attempting to reach the summit sing to Beck Weathers, who is unconscious on the mountain’s South Col. These ethereal spirits now turn their attention to Rob Hall, the expedition leader and guide, who is just reaching Everest’s highest peak at 2.30pm, 30 minutes past the safe turnaround time. Rob sees his client Doug Hansen a mere 40 feet below.
The scene shifts back to Beck Weathers. In his unconscious, dreamlike state, he hallucinates that he is in his backyard enjoying a Texas barbecue. Beck holds court and begins to describe his experiences on Everest. Suddenly, from the edge of Beck’s consciousness, the voice of his daughter Meg sings to him.
As we see Rob straining to help Doug reach the summit, time stops and Doug sings an aria in which he describes the tormenting deep-seated obsession that has led him to this moment. As Rob takes a picture of Doug, Rob is jarred by the memory of taking pictures of his wife, Jan.
While Rob endeavours to get his client down from the summit of Everest, we see Beck, lying, delirious, on the South Col. Once again, his daughter calls out to him in vain. From the depths of his consciousness, ruminations on his struggle with profound depression slowly merge with the memory of the events that took place on the climb earlier that same day.
Rob is increasingly desperate. He has a disabled client on the top of the mountain as the storm begins raging around them both. Jan, Rob’s wife, is contacted and told of her husband’s life-threatening situation.
Beck, beginning to emerge from his coma, sees the climbers on the South Col huddling together in a frantic attempt to survive the storm. Beck’s internal soliloquy slowly allows him to make sense of what is happening, and to comprehend the cold, hard truth: he is dying.
In a quartet, Doug, Rob, Jan and Beck sing of their plight. As the quartet concludes, we see Rob desperately trying to get Doug to the South Summit, where he hopes they can make it through the night.
Beck has finally woken up to the harsh reality that if he is going to be saved, he will need to do it himself.
© Joby Talbot & Gene Scheer. Reproduced by permission of Chester Music Ltd
Programme and performers
Programme and performers
Joby Talbot Everest (UK premiere)
Joby Talbot composer
Gene Scheer librettist
Nicole Paiement conductor
Leonard Foglia director
Kristen Barrett revival director
Stephen Higgins chorus master
Elaine J McCarthy projection designer
David Woolard costume designer
Daniel Okulitch Beck Weathers
Craig Verm Doug Hansen
Siân Griffiths Jan Arnold
Andrew Bidlack Rob Hall
Matilda McDonald Meg Weathers
Jimmy Holliday Guy Cotter
Charles Gibbs Mike Groom
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Singers
Libretto
1. Prologue: ‘Is this how it ends?’
Chorus
Ah!
Is this how it ends?
How many steps … How many breaths will you take in your life?
Will you only count the last ones you take? The last ones you take …
The last ones you take …
Ah!
Is this how it ends?
Is this how it begins?
A wisp of cloud
in a clear blue sky?
It is something no-one ever sees:
Dreams and contingencies
Spun into elegies.
One more step …
That is all there is …
It feels pure and beautiful. Beyond answers …
Beyond questions … Beyond … ls this how it begins?
2. Everest Summit – 2:30pm
Rob
I’m here! It’s Rob Hall … Made it!
Everest Summit. It’s two-thirty.
Cold and windy … AII is well …
It’s so beautiful.
Chorus
Do you remember it happening?
Do you remember becoming unaware?
How can you know
when you gently started letting go?
Rob
Mike and Yassica have begun their descent. Will follow with Doug, when he arrives.
I see him in the distance.
Chorus
Do you remember it happening?
Do you remember becoming unaware?
How can you know when you gently started letting go?
Rob
I’m here! It’s Rob Hall … Made it!
Everest Summit. It’s two-thirty.
Chorus
Thirty minutes past the turn around time. Too late. Too late.
On the top of the world,
Everything counts … everything’s counted:
Seconds of sunlight …
Bottles of oxygen …
Every breath … every step …
Everything else is whittled away …
And that is why you’re here …
And that is why you’re here …
And that is why you’re here …
3. Beck’s Barbecue
Beck
Where am I in this story?
Oh yes, the wind was so still …
When the summit climb began …
The stars were so close.
It was like walking inside the Milky Way …
Chorus
Were you scared?
Beck
Not then. It was beautiful.
Reach out, pluck stars from the sky …
Fill your pockets with ‘em …
Chorus
Did you always want to climb?
Beck
No way. When I was a kid …
I was a wimp … a dweeb …
I never dreamed I’d be there.
Chorus
Is that true?
Beck
Look … climbing through the death zone …
High on that mountain …
The air’s so thin …
Every second … your brain is dying …
Your body is dying …
You’re racing the clock …
And let me tell y’all … the clock is the only
Thing ticking faster than your heart.
Get up and get out.
Chorus
Get up and get out …
Beck
Now hold on, y’all!
You see … Everest was not on my life’s map …
Medicine! Now, that made sense.
Logic, puzzles, math, science,
What’s living … what’s dying …
Slides on a microscope … .
Logic, puzzles, math, science …
It makes sense.
Climbing Everest? – No way …
But there I am, with a bunch of dreamers …
Chorus
There I am … There I am …
Beck
Paying Rob Hall sixty-five grand to lead us
To the top of the world …
… Worth every penny …
Meg
Daddy …
Where are you?
Do you see me?
Do you hear me?
Beck
Food’s ready … Come and get ‘em …
Beer’s over there … on ice …
I know. I know. I could talk the ears off a
rubber rabbit.
Chorus
Have you ever seen three suns?
Beck
Strange … Once … in Antarctica …
Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen …
Thought I was glimpsing heaven …
The wind had died …
Complete, utter, silence …
When I opened my mouth,
My heart’s pounding, my heart’s pounding
Was the only sound in the world.
Chorus
Unconscious … shivering …
Beck
I looked up.
Chorus
Dying … Dreaming …
Beck/Chorus
And saw three suns …
A solar ellipsis … three points …
Just over the horizon …
Like three dots at the end of a story …
Beck/Chorus
What … comes … next …
4. Doug’s Ascent
Rob
Doug! Doug! Look down there!
Doug
Where I turned around … last year. Couldn’t make it.
Rob
Now look up … See it! You ready, mate?
Doug
… so close …
Rob
Thirty feet from the top!
I did not let you down!
Doug
Let’s do it.
Rob
Come on!
Doug/Rob
I will not let you down.
Chorus
Two fifty-five pm.
Two fifty-nine. (pause)
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three oh-six (pause)
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three-twelve …
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three twenty-one (pause)
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three twenty-eight (pause)
Rob/ Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three thirty-six … (pause)
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three forty-seven … (pause)
Rob/Doug
Ah …
Chorus
Three fifty-six … (pause)
Rob
One more step …
Aria
Doug
One more step …
Chorus
Three fifty-six …
Doug
More than anything, I just want the pain
Of wanting this so much to go away forever.
One more step …
I worked three jobs … saved …
… gave all I have …
One more step …
One more try …
One last try …
One more step …
Thank you, Rob …
After failing last year …
I stopped believing …
You never did …
A dozen phone calls,
Urging me to believe …
Earlier today I clicked out of the line …
I stopped believing …
You whispered to me …
‘One more try …
One last try …
One more step …‘
Look … one … more … step …
I did … not let you … down …
Chorus
Three fifty-six …
Four o’clock …
Doug
Why do I climb?
Why am I … here?
I … don’t … remember …
More than anything …
I just wanted … the pain of wanting …
This … so much to … go … away … forever …
Chorus
Four o’clock.
Rob
You are on top of the world!
Doug
Take a picture … l’m not coming back here.
5. Photos of Jan
Aria
Jan
I don’t like posing … Can you tell?
But I’m glad you insisted.
Rob
Turn your head …
Jan
Imagine showing her …
All of these photos, taken each month … Imagine … So sweet …
What shall we call her?
Just four months to decide …
There are twenty-nine thousand and thirty-five reasons why I love you …
Rob
Really?
Jan
A coincidence. Just the way it worked out.
I love that your dream became not climbing Everest, but climbing Everest with me.
Standing on the summit together …
It was beautiful …
It’s ours forever …
Rob/Jan
Ours forever.
Jan
Strange staying behind …
Think of all who have endured the waiting … From poor Ruth Mallory on …
All alone in 1924, waiting …
Would her husband be the first to touch the top of the world?
I see George in his tent
with frozen fingers writing her:
Rob/Jan
‘That the same lark winging the universal blue,
Wakes the same trembling ecstasy in you.’
Jan
Will you write me letters?
Rob
Faxes …
Jan
How romantic …
Rob
You know what it’s like.
Jan
I do … that nice American … works in a post office … Doug … from last year,
Will he try again?
Rob
Not sure.
Jan
Rob … .Hold on … Hold on … Hold on … Rob …
She kicked …
Put your hand here …
Doug
Rob!
Jan
Rob …
Doug
Rob!
Jan
Rob …
Doug
Rob!
Jan
Rob …
Doug
I can’t breathe.
Jan
Put your hand here …
6. Doug collapses
Rob
Doug! Get up! Get up! It’s four fifteen. We
can’t stop!
Doug
I can’t.
Rob
You have to move! Come on!
Doug
I can’t.
Rob
Come on!
Base camp! It’s Rob Hall. Oxygen!
Need someone near the South Summit to
bring up some Oxygen.
Doug is in bad shape … hardly moving!
Somebody please …
7. From Camp Four to the Balcony
Meg
Cinderella, dressed in yella,
Went upstairs to kiss a fella.
Made a mistake and kissed a snake.
How many doctors did it take?
One, two, three, four, five …
Is Cinderella still alive?
Cinderella, dressed in blue,
Had no prince to find her shoe.
Left alone, left behind,
Chasing circles in her mind.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!
What is Cinderella’s fate?
Chorus
Daddy?
Where are you Daddy?
Meg
Daddy …
I saw you from the hallway …
It was so dark …
But I saw you …
Sitting on the couch …
Why are you so sad?
What’s wrong?
Aria
Chorus
Ah …
Beck
There is a kind of bliss
Found only when I push like this.
When the black dog, depression …
Unconquerable despair,
For one brief moment isn’t there …
At midnight, Rob Hall said, ‘it’s time,’
And the climb began.
This is where I long to be,
Exhaust … Erase the rest of me.
Chorus
This is where I long to be,
Exhaust … Erase the rest of me.
Beck
Darkness has followed me …
My whole adult life …
Every day … Everywhere but here …
The garage after work …
… unable to move … to step inside the house …
All alone – late at night …
I’m sitting on a couch –
ls there a gun on my lap?
I don’t understand … .
I love my wife, my son, my daughter …
Meg …
Chorus/Beck
There is a kind of bliss
found only when I push like this.
8. Beck Clicks Out Of The Line
Beck
Finally … l step on the balcony of Everest … The sun is coming up … no shadows …
Every peak but Everest itself
Is below me … rolling gently
Like waves on an ocean of forgetfulness.
Chorus
And then? And then?
What is wrong, Beck?
What is wrong?
Beck
Something’s wrong with my eyes …
Chorus
Something is wrong with your eyes.
Your vision is blurred …
Beck
Thought it would be okay.
My damn eyes … l’ve got a problem …
It’s the altitude …
My pupils won’t adapt …
Till the sun ascends …
I can hardly see …
Chorus
So you clicked out of the line.
Beck
Rob Hall said to me …
Chorus
‘Promise me if your eyes don’t improve
in thirty minutes, you’ll wait right here for me.’
Beck
‘Rob, I’m stickin … I’ll wait right here for you.’
Chorus
I’ll wait right here.
Beck
I was not upset.
It was a beautiful day.
Chorus
As the sun rose is the sky …
Beck
My eyes adapted … my pupils contracted …
Chorus
As you knew they would …
Beck
Beautiful! Beautiful! The whole day …
Every peak but Everest itself
Is below me … rolling gently
Like waves on an ocean of …
Chorus
Two fifty-nine (pause)
Beck
It’s beginning to snow …
Chorus
Three o-six (pause)
Beck
It’s cold.
Chorus
Three-twelve … (pause)
Beck
The sun’s beginning to set.
Chorus
Three twenty-one … (pause)
Beck
I’ll lose my sight again soon.
Chorus
Three twenty-eight … (pause)
Beck/Chorus
There are dark clouds below.
Chorus
Three forty-seven … (pause)
Beck/Chorus
It’s snowing harder.
Chorus
Three fifty-six … (pause)
Beck
My feet are cold.
Chorus
Four o’clock.
Beck
Where’s Rob?
Chorus
Five o’clock …
Mike
Is that you, Beck?
Beck
Mike? Is that you, Mike? I’ve been waiting for
Rob. I promised to wait.
Mike
It’s late. Let’s go.
Beck
I know … But Mike … l think I might be in a bit
of trouble … I can’t see.
9. The Storm Hits
Jan
Rob told you to call me?
So he’s fine?
I mean … No-one is fine …
That high … this late …
He should have been back
on the South Col in the tents by now.
I was the expedition doctor …
I’ve been there … No-one is fine …
that high … this late …
Rob/Jan
Please … Please …
Jan
… Call me …
Rob
… I need oxygen.
Send someone up.
I’m on the top of the Hillary step.
I can get myself down.
But I don’t know how the fuck
I’m going to get this man down.
Is that you, Guy?
Guy
Rob, Rob, the storm is big,
Coming from below.
Trust me, mate. There’s no time …
No other way.
Save yourself. Leave Doug behind.
It’s the only choice … l’m sorry …
But you must move now … Save yourself …
Rob
Doug can hear you … I have to go.
Come on …
The Storm
Chorus
Two souls, a cliff, a peak,
A mountain, a range, a country,
A continent, a planet, a universe …
Farther and farther …
Smaller and smaller …
And all of it spinning away …
And pulled by time,
Ground into stardust …
… inhaled and exhaled …
Jan/Chorus
And still two souls hold on, hold on …
Inch by inch, hour after hour
Down Hillary’s step …
And in the deafening roar of all of this … Everything is carved away …
But the promise of one more breath …
Hold on … Hold on …
Two souls, a cliff, a peak,
A mountain, a range, a country,
A continent, a planet, a universe …
Farther and farther …
Smaller and smaller …
Chorus
And all of it spinning away …
Jan
Might as well be on the moon,
I will not let go of you.
Might as well be on the moon,
I’ve never been so close to you …
Please, I beg you …
Hold on … Hold on …
10. The Huddle
Soliloquy
Beck
Reds, blues, yellows greens …
Allow us to see who we really are …
Who we have become …
I am a pathologist.
Everything I look at is artificial …
Nothing I see is real …
Slides can only reveal
What has been altered, stained with dyes …
Everything I look at is artificial …
Stained reflections … colorful dreams …
Reds, blues, yellows greens …
Who have I become?
How can I see what’s always been invisible,
Hidden in the darkness?
Who am I?
Where am I?
Am I dreaming?
I’m cold … colder than I ever remember …
Reds, blues, yellows greens …
Where am I? Everest! Everest!
The mother goddess of the world …
Are you the dye, the acid
That can show me the true shape of things?
Who I really am?
Or am I seeing my own cells
Dying before my eyes?
Freezing … to death …
Eclipsing the promise of everything …
No! No! No!
Quartet
Rob/Doug/Jan/Beck
Too easy to die,
Easy as falling asleep.
To float, to let go, to be carried away …
Tell me you feel the unbearable cold.
The burn, the shiver …
The crush of the wind,
Feel it … Feel it …
The surge of blood,
Like a million knives
Cutting the tips of your fingers.
Tell me you feel all of this …
For now – only life’s pain
Says it is not over yet.
11. The South Summit
Rob
You … have … to … try!
One … more … step …
That’s all … nothing else …
Damn it … Come on!
Doug
I … can’t … l’m sorry …
Rob
There … the South Summit … Rest there …
Damn it! Move!
We’ll … grind … it out … here …
Wait for the sun … I’ll carve a spot … out of … the wind …
Doug
Rob … l’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Rob
Me too … Hold on …
Doug! Doug! No!
Can … anyone … hear me?
Can … anyone … hear me?
Can … anyone … hear me?
Guy
Rob … Rob … ?
Good to hear your voice … .
Been eleven hours … We missed you …
Tell me you’re near the tents …
Rob
No … South Summit.
Guy … l can’t move … My legs …
My hands are …
I’ll make it through another night …
l will … l will … l will …
Guy
You are a tough man …
We’re going to try to patch Jan
Through from a satellite phone to the radio. Hold on …
Chorus
Hold on.
Send someone for me.
Rob
When the sun’s up … Send someone for me.
Guy
We will. Where is Doug?
Rob
Doug is gone …
12. The Phone Call
Chorus
Two a m.
How many breaths will you take in your life?
Will you only count the last ones you take?
Three fourteen a m.
How can you know when you gently started
letting go?
Four nineteen.
Five ten.
Left for dead.
Rob
Hello Jan, my sweetheart,
Jan
Rob, my darling …
Rob
I hope you’re tucked up in a nice warm bed.
Jan
How are you my love?
I can’t tell you how much I’m thinking about
you.
You sound so much better than I expected.
Are you warm, darling?
Are you warm, darling?
Rob
Sarah … Sarah … How about Sarah for the
name?
Jan/Rob
Sarah … Sarah … Sarah …
Ours forever …
I love you.
Rob
Sleep well, my sweetheart.
Please don’t worry too much.
Jan
Rob, my darling,
Don’t feel that you’re alone.
13. The Cavalry’s Not Coming
Chorus
If the snow hadn’t come …
If the ice hadn’t shifted …
If the rope had held …
If the clouds had lifted …
But the snows did come …
And the ice did shift …
And the rope snapped,
And the clouds didn’t lift … .
Since 1924 our elegies
Have been woven from dreams and a million
contingencies.
Each unique and each the same …
It’s time to add another name … another
name …
Rob/Doug
On the top of the world,
Everything counts … everything’s counted:
Seconds of sunlight …
Bottles of oxygen …
Every breath … every step …
Everything else is whittled away …
And that is why you’re here …
Was that ever true?
How can you know when you gently started
letting go?
Meg
Daddy? Where are you, Daddy?
Can you see me?
Can you hear me?
Beck
Meg … I see you … l see you …
Chorus/Doug/Rob
Dreams and contingencies
Spun into elegies …
Each unique and each the same …
It’s time to add …
Beck
No … No! There is one sun in the sky.
I am not dreaming anymore.
I know where I am …
I have to save myself.
The cavalry’s not coming …
I have to save myself.
The cavalry’s not coming …
Libretto © Gene Scheer
Artist biographies
Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Simon Bainbridge.
His diverse output includes full-length narrative ballets (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2011; The Winter’s Tale, 2014) and contemporary dance works (Chroma, 2007); small- and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012); concertos (Desolation Wilderness, 2006; Ink Dark Moon, 2018); and scores for the screen (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; and Vampyr, 2018).
Joby Talbot’s critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Scheer, receives its premiere in November. Like Water for Chocolate, Joby Talbot’s third narrative ballet with Christopher Wheeldon was premiered in June 2022 by the Royal Ballet and received further performances by its partner commissioner ABT in March this year in Costa Mesa and earlier this month at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Matilda McDonald is a member of Tiffin Choir, Finchley Children’s Music Group and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. In 2022 she performed in the ENO’s production of Tosca, singing the role of young Tosca. She is also performing in Holland Park’s production of La bohème this summer. She is also a keen flautist.
For over 90 years the BBC Symphony Orchestra has been a driving force in the musical landscape, championing contemporary music in its performances of newly commissioned works and giving voice to rarely performed and neglected composers and music. It plays a central role in the BBC Proms, performing regularly throughout the season each year, including the First and Last Nights.
Highlights of the current Barbican season have included Total Immersion days exploring the music of George Walker, Kaija Saariaho and Sibelius, the last two led by Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo, who also conducted concerts showcasing the music of Grażyna Bacewicz. A literary theme has included a new version by Neil Brand of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, the world premiere of Iain Bell’s Beowulf with the BBC Symphony Chorus and an evening of words and music with novelist Ian McEwan. Further world and UK premieres have included works by Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Kaija Saariaho and Valerie Coleman.
Concerts in the forthcoming Proms season include the First Night with Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska, pianist Yuja Wang performing Rachmaninov, Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo conducting music by Dora Pejačević and Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony with the BBC Symphony Chorus, concerts conducted by Jules Buckley and Semyon Bychkov, and the Last Night of the Proms with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and conductor Marin Alsop.
In October Sakari Oramo launches the BBC SO’s 2023–4 season with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, with further concerts including music by Sibelius, Alice Mary Smith, and Stravinsky whose Violin Concerto is performed by Vilde Frang. Themes of voyage and storytelling run through the season, which includes Stravinsky’s The Firebird, conducted by Eva Ollikainen, and Ravel’s Shéhérazade, and world and UK premieres of music by Detlev Glanert, Tebogo Monnakgotla, Outi Tarkiainen and Lotta Wennäkoski, plus the London premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth’s Magnificat with the BBC Symphony Chorus.
The vast majority of the performances are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds and a number of studio recordings each season are free to attend. These often feature up-and-coming talent, including members of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus – alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Proms – offer innovative education and community activities and take a lead role in the BBC Ten Pieces and BBC Young Composer programmes, including work with schools, young people and families in East London ahead of the BBC SO’s move in 2025 to its new home at London’s East Bank cultural quarter in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford.
Co-produced by the Barbican and BBC Symphony Orchestra
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