Composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars describe how they found the character of Joe Cannon in an old mining song from the Gold Rush.
TRANSCRIPT
♪ My name it is Joe Bowers ♪ ♪ I got a brother Ike ♪ ♪ Im just here from Missouri and all the way from Pike ♪ Joe, we found as a character in one of the mining songs.
He's called Joe Bowers and that.
But we changed his name to Joe Cannon.
Joe Cannon is the name of the guy who actually was killed by Josefa in Downieville.
So Joe Bowers became Joe Cannon.
♪ She says to me, Joe Bowers, ♪ ♪ before we've hitched for life ♪ ♪ you ought to get a...♪ The thrill was just finding that song and realizing we had the through line of the whole night.
And there it was in one song.
My name is Joe.
♪ I'll go to California and try to raise a stake ♪ What I did was to take the text and then set it to my own music, which was really fun.
I got to say.
♪ My name is Joe ♪ ♪ My name is Joe Cannon ♪ ♪ I have a brother named Ike ♪ ♪ I've come from Missouri ♪ ♪ Yes, all the way from Pike ♪ He tells about how he kind of came all the way from Missouri, from Pike.
And he has a brother named Ike.
♪ I used to love a girl there ♪ ♪ They called her Sally Black ♪ Sally, that he fell in love with said that she should marry him.
But first he had to go and make some money.
♪ Say hi to her ♪ ♪ To dear Sally ♪ ♪ Oh Sally for your sake ♪ ♪ Ill go to Californie ♪ ♪ And try to raise a stake ♪ And then to us, guys!
♪♪ And gets a Dear John letter from Sally, who says she's fallen in love with the butcher and she's had a baby.
And the baby looks like the butcher.
♪ Sally had a baby and the baby had red hair ♪ ♪ Had red hair ♪ And we watch him dig himself in deeper and watch the system around him only kind of feed his worst impulses.