Galaxy (Cassiopeia), Vija Clemins, graphite on acrylic ground on paper, 1973. Courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art: Gertrude Rosenthal Bequest Fund/Vija Clemins.
Galaxy (Cassiopeia), Vija Clemins, graphite on acrylic ground on paper, 1973. Courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art: Gertrude Rosenthal Bequest Fund/Vija Clemins.

The Voyage begins when the Scientist in a wheel-chair with a computerized voice-box sings:

Quarks, kooks
Heretics, lunatics
Lovers and defilers of God
Set off in leaky vessels
Towards the holes on the horizon
With fautly fuel lines
And failing eyesight
And limbs quite inadequate
And minds finally limited
To the certainty
That the inadequate body can follow
Where the inadequate mind has been

When my daughter was born, I smiled like a hyena
And for a moment I felt my legs and my limbs
For a moment I knew
No boundaries
A body, a planet, a universe, a mind
For whom the limits do not apply

The voyage lies where
The vision lies
There

Chorus:
[simultaneously, repeated variously, fragmented]

Will time run backwards?
Is time a spherical object?
Is real time imaginary?
Can particles escape from a black hole?
Does a finite universe exist without boundaries?
Does God abhor a naked singularity?
What is the mind of God?
Can man picture a universe created without God?
Does God have a purpose?

Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. All rights reserved (c) 1992 Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc.

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