Composition and Inspiration
Seeking collaborators for an opera taking the "War on Terror" as its subject, Burstein advertised for a librettist. He advertised for a librettist via Artists Against The War (Guardian - My Opera Hell). In late 2002, the post was filled by controversial Welsh playwright Dic Edwards, and the two subsequently wrote Manifest Destiny together, completing the opera in 2003. Though critical in tone, the opera was explicitly presented as a pacifist statement. Both Burstein and Edwards took pains to stress that the opera did not endorse the actions of suicide bombers and displayed them ultimately rejecting their violent course of action. In the programme for the Edinburgh production, Burstein wrote: "The renunciation of violence in time of war will always seem miraculous. Manifest Destiny is an attempt to describe such a miracle. Taking as its starting point the most ardent form of contemporary violence - that of the suicide bomber - it asks us to contemplate a path, a journey of the soul, on which these ‘martyrs’ are transformed by the power of love. Their grievances remain, their passionate demand for justice remains, but their weapon turns from war to peace."
In interviews with Reuters, Edwards has stated "I've always believed theatre is a place of debate... What we wanted to show is that terrorists are human beings, with the same emotions as the rest of us. While it's impossible to sympathise with terrorism, I think we have to, for the sake of the future, try and understand it... We wanted to show that potentially we are all suicide bombers if there is a cause.” Burstein added "Opera is peculiarly able to X-ray issues and X-ray the soul in a way that other media do not.I hope the opera will surprise people by making the characters in this story seem to be very immediate and very real...There is also a symbol at the end of a possible reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews."
In an article written for The Scotsman, Burstein stated"(Manifest Destiny) imagines a scenario in which the protagonists - would-be suicide bombers - are stopped in their tracks. Not by the security services, but by their own humanity: a process of love, springing from within the peaceful teachings of Islam and triumphing over their anger and fear. In the near-future envisaged in the opera, it is Mohammed, a Jihadist committed to violent direct action, who is transformed by discovering the human-scaled, yet overwhelming nature of his love for a fellow suicide bomber (which) has so overwhelmed his emotions that he can neither let her die, nor let her or himself kill others."
Read more about this topic: Manifest Destiny (opera)
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