Opera Story by Ms. Frank
A Cafe Where Dreams Come True
In a place called New York City, in a time that we might say is “NOW” but is actually a long time away in the future, there was a wonderful place where people met, they talked, they learned about things from each other, and they drank coffee, tea and hot cocoa. There were delicious things to eat, like scones and chocolate croissants, and paninis for lunch. Students brought their laptops and worked on homework, grown-ups worked on all kinds of projects, and also just spent some time relaxing there and enjoying the company of interesting people. (Break where a chorus song begins. “Happy times are here. I feel like the air is clear. I can think, and drink, and be creative, and my children can play till the end of day shall appear.”)
The world at that time was a very interesting place. The internet had exploded, the teachers were learning how to flip their classrooms, and families could talk to anyone they wanted to at any time all over the world. Any question you had could be answered. People believed that any problem could be solved, because all the apps and devices and ideas had been invented, or could be invented if you had the time, energy and money to do it. That being said, there were still people who were scared, cruel, traumatized by experiences they had, lost, needing more in life, and wanting to change the way things were, but didn’t really know how. They were always seeking comfort and ways to believe in the beauty of life. They wanted to grow their capacity for happiness.
This is why the cafe where dreams come true was invented. It had originally been called “The Thinking Cup” because many people did their thinking and drinking there. (Another chorus number. “Thinking, drinking, sinking with thoughts and ideas, all around the world, I am here, and here and here.”) However, one day a child came into “The Thinking Cup”. Her name was Lucy. She had been given a bike for her birthday. She lived right down the street from the cafe. She sang a song to the owner, Louis, about where she used to live. (Solo:”I used to live where parks were new, shiny places. There were all kinds of places to ride my bike. I moved here, and there is nowhere to ride. The sidewalks are full of people, the streets are dense with vehicles, I have nowhere to go!”) She was frustrated and sad, as you can imagine. The Thinking Cup was a place to find a solution to a problem. Louis sings a song now: “So sorry for you, there are some solutions not to be ever had. This is so sad. I am all the time wishing for my people to have a greater capacity to be glad.” and so forth.
He then realized that it wasn’t enough to think your life better, you had to dream your life better. And so that very day, he changed the name to “The Cafe Where Dreams Come True.” He sings a song about that, and then the little girl realizes that the place she used to live had gardens and parks for playing and hiking and riding her bike because there were people in that place called Maine, who were willing to spend the time the money and the energy to build them! She noticed a woman sitting quietly at a table nearby and this lady was reading a gardening book and taking notes on her ipad! Lucy sat down and introduced herself to this woman. Her name was Nora, and she had moved to NYC as well fairly recently after retiring from a big job in Silicon Valley, and she wanted to make a garden and a park in NYC like the ones she had been studying about by the man, Frederick Law Olmstead, who created the Emerald Necklace in the Boston area. She and Lucy began to talk excitedly about their dream and how it would be wonderful in NYC to have more green trees, and pathways and gorgeous plantings as well as places to ride your bike. Central Park was ok and all, but it had been taken over recently by many mean Poodles, and there was nowhere for children to ride their bikes anymore because the poodles kept nipping at their heels and barking at them. Lucy and Nora sing a beautiful duet about making the world a better place, and being the change you want to see in the world. Act 1 ends with a big chorus number about dreaming big, about changing the world, about being a “now-ist” not a “Futurist”.
Act 2
The cafe owner, Louis, is cleaning up after a flurry of activity, and at the dead time of day, between lunch and tea time, a middle aged woman saunters into the cafe. ( Susannah) He sees her and immediately recognizes her from his childhood. They went to a small, private school in Brookline, (another connection to the Emerald Necklace, as there was a park there. An ice skating park where everyone used to hang out on Friday nights.) and so they knew each other well then, but had lost touch for thirty-five years. Louis was quiet and reserved as a middle school child, and so she might not remember him, but he always thought she was special and beautiful, and he had nothing to lose. He had read in the bulletin for their school that this woman, Susannah’s sister, had died, and he took a chance to walk right up to her table and re-introduce himself. He sings an aria about remembering her family, with five lovely girls cascading from a big old station wagon every morning, and how sad he was to read of the loss of her sister. She had just recently been to a party where everyone knew her sister, but no one said a word, it was just too difficult for anyone there to bring up that complicated subject. Therefore, to Susannah this was the bravest thing anyone could do. But it got better. He then told a story about a time before he bought the cafe, when he had a job driving a taxi around the city. He remembered that he picked Susannah’s sister up that night, his last fare, and they ended up talking all night long. He described her energy, her wit, humor, intensity, and fear of injustice, anxiety about not being able to control the horrors of the world, and Susannah was not only charmed by his beautiful story-telling ability, but also by being given back her sister in a more healthy form.
They talked on and on, (they sing solos and a duet together). She says in one of her songs, “I found out too late that my sister was rooting for me, she would brag to everyone she knew, but I never knew until after she was gone.” He sings, “She is still rooting for you. They all are.” This is when she finds out the name of the cafe, and she didn’t even realize it. She sings,”A Cafe where dreams come true? How can that be? Silly me? Of little faith, of so little faith. “ Because, you see, after all this, she never thought she could fall in love again, and here was a man, a quiet, reserved and lovely man, who not only gave her her sister back in a healthier, happier, younger form, but also loved movies, and music, and opera, and stories just like her. She had come into the cafe just for a break from her busy day, she didn’t even notice the name of the cafe. At this point in the drama, it is important to see that sometimes the best dreams that come true are the dreams you never even had. So- she sees her sister again, through Louis’ story, she falls in love again, with someone who cares for her in a way she never knew possible, and the world continues to be a place where dreams actually DO come true!
Meanwhile, Louis also had not imagined falling in love again, as his life was so pre-occupied with work, in fact, he had become a work-enslaved being in his time after he bought the cafe. He dedicated his life to others, to their happiness, and their well-being. (He sings again) He wanted this cafe to grow everyone’s capacity for gaiety, for happiness, for love- he just never expected that it could affect him too. Everyday miracles, they are not miracles, they are the way life should be! Another chorus number ends Act two, “Everyday miracles climb the ladders of life, everyday miracles seek light, everyday miracles solve the daily problems of the world. “
Act 3
It is a quiet day in the cafe. A man enters and orders a cafe au lait, and sits down and opens up his phone to read the Christian Science Monitor. He sings about the coffee first, and how delicious it is, how he has always wanted to come into this place, but didn’t often like to “think” too much, as his life has been so sad the past several years. But today he came in because he saw that the cafe’s name had been changed! He believed for a moment that dreams could come true, even though he was hoping against all hope, as he lost his wife to a drunk driving accident five years ago, and his life has seemed empty ever since. He was hoping that he could at least see some remnant of his wife, her scarf, her hair, her facial expressions. He sings, I would only need it once, and I would be able to remember again. He believes if he could have one day with her, not a special day, but just an ordinary day, even sitting on a park bench reminiscing, he would be happy again. He sings a poignant aria about this sadness in his life, and he turns around at the end, and takes a sip, and picks up a napkin to wipe the tears from his eyes. Just at that moment, a woman of about twenty-five enters the cafe, and begins her song. She sings about the life she has been living, the family who took her in, long ago as an infant from the orphanage, and how she just wanted to meet her birth mother once to talk to her and find out why her mother couldn’t take care of her. She is on holiday from her job in Boston, Massachusetts, where she has become a librarian, and cares about books, and reading and writing. She sings about how the books she reads take her to imaginary places, and help her to forget how difficult her life has been. She finishes her song, sits down at a small table by the window, and takes out her kindle.
At that moment, the man who lost his wife, Justin, sees her by the window and lets out a yell. ( A singing yell, of course, a deep, resonant arpeggio that shows great emotion and surprise!) She looks exactly like his wife. Her long flowing hair, her intense look as she is reading, her big wide-set eyes, this is the spitting image of his wife, from her early years before he knew her. They married late, and had no children, so he can’t believe that this could be a person related to her. But this is, after all, a place where dreams come true. He sings a quiet lullaby about the time he and his wife, Olivia, spoke about having children but decided it would be too difficult. The next thing he knows, he has gained the strength and the courage to approach her. He sings about how the cafe not only helps people to realize their ultimate dreams, but the coffee perhaps gives them the courage and the determination to risk everything for this. There is a chorus number where they sing “It is not enough to want something, you must be humble to the work. The landscape designer has shown us that, look at her beautiful park, she donated all her hard-earned money to create a place for children to play and grow flowers in greenhouses, to raise bees for the flowers and for honey, to learn how to be sustainable farmers, and ride your bikes too! We saw the cafe owner not even imagining his life could be better, and look at him now. We see this now, this beautiful girl and her search for her birth mother..”
The man comes right up to her, and they sing a duet, he says she looks like his wife, but how can that be? He shows her a photograph of her, and sings about her character, her beauty, her kindness to all. She sees the photograph and says, that has to be my real mother! But how can that be? They sing a duet of beautiful excitement, after they realize that Justin never knew his wife had a child long before they knew each other, and yet now his dream has come true. He touches her hair lightly, and it feels so much like his wife’s hair. Her wide-set eyes are just like hers, the way her limbs move, and the expressions on her face, this is his wife! Her part of the duet, she sees she can have a relationship with someone who was the closest to her mother. She realizes what a good person her mother was, she never wanted to feel badly about her, and never could, but she resented how she was left alone. They are both sad that they have lost this kind person before they really knew her, but together, they have regained her essence, and they sing about that.
There is a final chorus. This chorus calls up all our belief in love conquering death. It reiterates the idea that we make our world a better place by always trying to be a better person and by helping others. We can a be a force for good, or we can be a force for evil, and create heaven on this earth, for what do we know of the other? Thoughts are angels of beauty, of loveliness and if we dream them, if we speak them, if we work them, they defy death. If we have love, like Justin, like Susannah, like Olivia, we have the capacity for dreams to come alive. If we have work, like Nora and like Lucy, and mostly like Louis, we are humble to this work, and we can find a way to grow each person’s capacity for joy.
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