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[busy instrumental music]
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[male voice] It's an opera about
Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs,
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and their battle over the future
of New York City.
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[music continues under voice]
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Robert Moses was in many ways
the most powerful person in New York City
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from the late '20s through the mid '60s.
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He built power plants, housing projects,
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almost every highway in New York.
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He wanted to use government and his power
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to make things better for the people
of New York City.
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Better on his terms.
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Robert Moses had a vision for what NYC
needed and what it could become,
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and he was incredibly driven
to try to bring about that vision.
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[modern piano music]
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♪ look out at the scrubby grass ♪
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♪ and rock where the water
bumps up against land ♪
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♪ but people at rest the day's griefs
and ?? from their hearts ♪
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♪ the world wants us to love it ♪
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♪ the world wants us to love ♪
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[instrumental music]
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[male voice] Jane Jacobs' rise
coincides with Moses' fall.
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Moses is essentially concerned
with traffic,
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and creating access to the city for cars,
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whereas Jacobs' focus is the pedestrian,
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and what makes a neighbourhood vibrant,
what makes it function,
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what makes you want to live there.
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Her point of view is that
the people who live in cities,
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left to their own devices,
will make the best decisions.
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The opera begins with
the Ballet of the Street,
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which is Jacobs' description of a day in
the life of her block on Hudson Street,
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and we get to see what it is
we're defending:
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the vibrant neighbourhood,
through her view of it.
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Just by looking out her window onto her
block on Hudson St. in Greenwich Village,
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she makes observations
about neighbourhoods,
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neighbourhoods that work,
and neighbourhoods that don't work.
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[sound of typewriter]
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Jane Jacobs collects these observations
and sets about to put them into a book:
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The Death and Life
of Great American Cities.
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And incredibly, while she's trying
to write her book,
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she's getting sucked into
protest movements
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to protect her own neighbourhood
against Moses-driven projects.
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♪ the old sad story ♪
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♪ the story of democracy ♪
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♪ you say what it takes to raise hopes
and jump ship ♪
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♪ for a sum of money ♪
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♪ the love of glory ♪
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♪ Moses, I can't keep the serpent
in the garden ♪
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♪ you can't attack him with a shovel ♪
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♪ or smoke him into hiding ♪
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♪ or turn loose a fox
or whatever it is that eats snakes ♪
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♪ if you follow the angels [?] ♪
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[clap!]
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♪ ?? us some miracles ♪
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[clap!]
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♪ ????? ♪
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♪ ??????? ♪
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[really hitting those high notes!]
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♪ Washington Square Park ♪
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♪ killed by progress ♪
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♪ ???? ♪
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♪ death of a neighbourhood ♪
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[instrumental music]
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[male voice]
The way the opera frames
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the conflict between Moses and Jacobs
is as a love story.
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Moses and Jacobs are vying
for the love of the city.
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In the end, Moses is removed from power
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and Jacobs is triumphant in the battle
she has against Moses,
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and yet she leaves.
The Jacobs family moves to Canada.
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Even though Jacobs is able to defeat
the Goliath that is Robert Moses,
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then she abandons the city.
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[opera going on quietly in background]
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There's an incredible scale to the story
and what it's about.
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It's about epically large structures
and millions of people.
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It's a clash of Titans.
It's a clash of intellects,
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and each of them sees themself
as the hero, and the other as the villain.
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♪ the world wants us to love it ♪
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♪ the world wants us to love it ♪
