A series of blogs identifying five general categories of the nurse character’s role in operas from the mid-seventeenth through the early twenty-first century. The categories are fluid and overlap, so that the nurse character can and usually does appear in more than one category within an opera. Taken from a careful study of librettos and available performances of a hundred-plus operas with at least one nurse character.
Specialized Nurses: Canadian Nursing Sisters
Llandovery Castle by Stephanie Martin, Libretto by Paul Ciufo
Premiered in Toronto, 2018
In World War I, 14 Canadian nursing sisters paid the ultimate price for their wartime service when a German torpedo sank the hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle on which the nurses were sailing from Nova Scotia to England to take on sick and wounded soldiers from the war for their journey home. As the ship crosses the Atlantic, the six nursing sisters in the cast, all factual characters, reveal their inner conflicts and introspections brought on by working with the wounded in battle before they, too, become casualties of the war.
In World War I, fourteen Canadian nursing sisters paid the ultimate price for their wartime service when a German torpedo sank the hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle on which the nurses were sailing from Nova Scotia to England to take on sick and wounded soldiers from the war for their journey home. No patients were on board, but the ship carried a full crew and, as passengers, the personnel of the medical unit who would provide patient care on the return voyage. On the night of 27 June 1918, shortly after nine o’clock when the ship was just over a hundred miles off the southwest coast of Ireland, a torpedo fired from a German U-boat struck the ship; ten minutes later, the Llandovery Castle sank, but not before the captain had ordered “abandon ship” and five lifeboats had been lowered successfully. The lifeboat carrying all the nursing sisters ran into difficulty when the ropes would not release the craft after it dropped into the water, and use of axes and oars to free it was in vain. The lifeboat was caught in the vortex made by the sinking ship; it tipped over, and the nursing sisters were thrown into the sea. None survived. The U-boat commander, who had relied on false intelligence, took on board some of the survivors for questioning, then released them again. When he realized that he had committed a war crime by sinking a hospital ship, he tried to cover up any evidence by killing the survivors. One lifeboat with twenty-four men who escaped the massacre, including a sergeant who had been in the lifeboat with the nurses but resurfaced and later was pulled on board, lived to tell the story after their rescue at sea the next day. Two hundred thirty-four souls were lost at sea.
With librettist Paul Ciufo, Martin composed Llandovery Castle to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the nurses’ deaths. The opera had its premiere as a workshop performance in Toronto in 2018, with the first fully staged production in 2020 at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo Campus. In a 10 December 2017 online post about writing the opera, Martin called herself an “obsessed musical servant of the Llandovery Castle story,” charged to “strike a balance between re-telling the tale as truthfully as we can, while creating a compelling theatre piece.” 1
Martin has succeeded on both counts. The cast features six of the nursing sisters: Matron Margaret Marjorie “Pearl” Fraser and Nursing Sisters Rena “Bird” McLean and Minnie Katherine “Kate” Gallaher, who have the leading roles; Mary Agnes “Nan” McKenzie, Christina Campbell, and Alexina “Alex” Dussault, who form the chorus; and Sergeant Arthur “Art” Knight, who was in the lifeboat with the nurses; Major Thomas “Tom” Lyon, a medical officer; and Oberleutnant Helmut Brummer-Patzig, commander of U-Boat U-86. All are factual characters. Fraser and McLean had been in the Canadian Medical Corps since early in the war, having served overseas with several ocean crossings under their (life) belts. Hospital transport was considered light duty to which nurses could be assigned after enduring the stressful battlefields of Europe.
The opera’s Prologue sets the stage – on the deck of the Llandovery Castle, with the cast joining their voices to describe the routes and mission of this “hospital of the waves, a haven for healing” steaming “all alone, no escort, no convoy.” Headed west, Liverpool to Halifax, “six hundred men broken in battle”; headed east, Halifax to Liverpool, the beds empty. The ship’s constant, its North Star, is her doctors and nurses – her healers. Scene 1 depicts a westbound voyage and gives a glimpse of the types of patients requiring the nursing sisters’ care: blind, lungs ruined, many with amputations. Up on deck, Nan’s anticipation of arrival in Halifax is dampened by Bird’s reply, “If we don’t get torpedoed,” to which Kate retorts, “Bite your tongue, Bird!” The exchange introduces the possibility of a torpedo attack that weighs heavily on the nurses’ minds and shares with operagoers what might have been a premonition of the upcoming disaster to strike the ship. Bird, who had purchased a new flashlight before sailing, promised her father that it would be her last trip aboard the Llandovery Castle. 2 The flashlight represents a theme developed in the opera, of light overcoming darkness.
The scene also broaches the inner conflicts of Bird, who wants to return to the Front but suffers from nightmares and PTSD; of Kate, who has no desire to return to the Front, because her efforts at healing seem futile; and of Matron, who will determine their next assignments. As Matron tells Major Lyon, Bird is the same as the other dozen nurses on board: “They gave and gave, and gave, and broke. They’re wrecks, and it falls to me to decide: who can be salvaged?” 3 Matron’s word repetition signifies the unending work of the nurses who in turn must salvage the casualties – a prominent theme of the opera; both are wrecks of the battlefield. When Matron tells Major Lyon how much the war demands of the nurses, the first violin introduces the recurring theme of “over and over again” in two stepwise descending triplets, the second beginning a step lower, followed by a step up, repeated by first and second violin in harmony ten measures later.
In scene 2, U-boat commander Patzig reveals his obsession with achieving victory for his fatherland by sinking Allied ships; he is “hell bent” on making the Llandovery Castle his seventeenth such success. Scene 3 opens on a westbound voyage. As Matron sings of the flood of wounded soldiers that she and Kate already have encountered for four years, the instruments depict the never-ending stream of battle casualties with a relentless syncopated rhythm of repeated eighth notes. When the ship’s general alarm sounds for a lifeboat drill immediately after Bird’s comment about buying a new flashlight “that will come in handy if we get torpedoed,” as a prelude to the actual catastrophe, Kate exclaims, “Oh Bird! Bird, what did you do?” Sergeant Knight rallies the nurses with the standard instructions: “Now listen up. Use these [life jackets] for pillows when you sleep. We get torpedoed, all the lights go out; you don’t want to be searching in the dark. … And your cabin door: never shut it tight. A torpedo hits, every bit of metal on the ship gives a twist … you’re trapped like … a bird in a cage.” Bird sets him straight, though kindly: “I know you’re trying to help but … this isn’t our first crossing.” The scene ends as Nan, Christina, and Alex, singing in minor, discordant harmonies featuring, break the fourth wall as a Greek Chorus to share what is running through the nurses’ minds: “In war, only one thing plagues you more than sharp memories: A horrid wond’ring, a constant, gnawing dread. Will I stay among the living, or join the many, many dead?”
Scene 4 shifts to Bird’s private war in which, with Matron’s help, she works through an episode of PTSD stemming from her work with the massive influx of battlefield wounded at a casualty clearing station after “The shells’ ghastly work.” Bird’s PTSD may prevent her return to the Front, for, as Matron points out, “A healer must brim with strength. Calm, confident, rock steady; A wounded soldier, utterly at sea, Looks to you, looks to you for a sound harbour … In your bones, you must know you are once again whole.” Bird and Matron introduce a theme recurring later in the opera about bearing witness, in this case, to the pain of the wounded soldiers that the nurses encounter “over and over again.”
For the church service that follows in scene 5, the libretto specifies “‘a medley of great old hymns’ to include the verse of “Amazing Grace,” ‘Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far, And Grace will lead me home,’ and hymns with nautical themes.” The score adds Charles Albert Tindley’s “Stand By Me” and the Lourdes pilgrimage hymn “Immaculate Mary.” In the Wilfrid Laurier production, Matron begins the service with Stand By Me and its phrase, “When the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea, thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me” as the opening prayer. Bird sings the second verse with the other nursing sisters joining in, Alex singing in French. Nan and Kate then sing the verse of “Amazing Grace,” while others sing “Immaculate Mary” with its Ave Maria refrain to which Kate adds a descant. The counterpoint of hymns concludes with the phrase “Stand by me.” The service brings Matron comfort, but not so for Kate; even Sergeant Knight’s ten-verse tale, “The Dog from Algiers,” sung enthusiastically as a sea chanty to break the emotional tension following the church service, cannot lift her spirits. “All it says to me is: even a dog has more decency than human beings,” Kate retorts as she walks away. “She is in a sad, dark place. Woe to any of us in this war, who can no longer keep the faith,” Matron explains to the others.
Kate’s dark place and intent to give up nursing, divulged in scene 6, contrast with Bird’s desire to dispel the darkness by illuminating the ship with her flashlight and her eagerness to return to the Front to do what she can for the wounded soldiers. Kate dwells on the futility of nursing care during war that patches up wounded soldiers only to send them back out to the Front, perhaps to be killed or, if more fortunate, wounded again and thus returned to the casualty clearing station where the process repeats itself “all over again.” Bird calls it trudging “through the nine circles of Hell” – a reference to Dante’s Inferno – but concludes, “Don’t tell me there’s only darkness, I know that’s not the truth.” Bird has shared her own journey from darkness into light when helping a wounded soldier through his dark place: “Lately I think of him, that moment of light: What if I had not been there for him that night?” Matron, who overhears the conversation between the two nurses, realizes that Bird is once again mentally fit to return to the Front, and shares the decision with her. Bird’s last words before the explosion underscore the nurse’s figurative and literal journey as she decides to “step into the light” rather than “to languish in darkness” – flashlight in hand.
The opera is not without its lighter moments. Sergeant Knight, Bird, and Matron all have humorous lines. With his spirited rendition of “The Dog from Algiers” with its many verses about a dog that saved a soldier’s life, Sergeant Knight offers a comic interlude that in earlier operas would fall to a servant to lighten the mood after an intense scene. The nurses’ chitchat with Sergeant Knight in scene 1 reveals Bird’s droll sense of humor as well:
Sgt: Long day?
Bird: This is nothing. This is easy. The men are stable.
Kate: This one [Bird] wants back into the action.
Sgt: How brave!
Bird: Or, I’ve lost my mind – likely somewhere in France.
Sgt: You’re funny!
Bird: You should have known me before; I was hilarious!
Major Lyon enters, then Matron, prompting all the nurses to leave. “I seem to have cleared the deck!” she exclaims, humorously. “You do put the fear of God into them,” Major Lyon quips. After the general alarm has sounded for the lifeboat drill, Matron appears, “hustling, putting on her life vest.” “Where are the others?” she asks. “Waiting for a hand-written invitation?” the sergeant suggests. “I’ll get them cracking!” Matron replies as she hurries off to find them. “She surely will!” Christina remarks.
More noteworthy is the nurses’ serious side. Although mention is made of the type of nursing care required when wounded soldiers are on board, the opera is set for the most part on a voyage without patients and thus focuses on the nurses’ invisible psychological turmoil, not on their visible nursing ministrations. The mental, not the physical, side of nursing is at the forefront. The opera delves into the nurses’ minds through their divulged interactions with patients and with colleagues and the toll that wartime nursing takes on even the most ardent of caregivers.
A conversation between Major Lyon and Matron Fraser captures the introspective nature of their journey, both literal and figurative, in a moment of self-reflection as the Llandovery Castle sails back toward the war. In scene 7 the two ponder their role in mitigating the horrors of war. “How do we find … some dram of saving grace?” the major poses. Having found that dram of saving grace in Bird, who led Kate “out of a dark chasm of despair,” Matron suggests that they look within themselves, for “while so many clamour to kill, We strive only to save lives.” Matron continues: “Where are our better angels? To whom can humanity turn for hope? Look in the mirror, Tom, we healers are the best of us.” In a passage found in the libretto but not in the music score, Matron’s noble assessment prompts Major Lyon to confess in a passage reminiscent of disgruntled doctors who preceded him in time of war: “When I heard women would serve as my fellow officers / Ashamedly, I was at first, opposed / Little did I imagine what strength and wisdom / you would offer at the time they’re needed most.” He soon would see that strength and wisdom put to the ultimate test. The nurses display these admirable traits when the Llandovery Castle is struck, as they move swiftly and purposely together to reach their lifeboat and climb aboard. They know what the sea can do, the nurses sing.
During the scene 8 attack, Nan, Christina, and Alex, as the Greek Chorus, are Patzig’s voice of conscience when pleading with him: “Stop, stop Patzig! There are laws to follow, even in this vile war. … Show mercy, Show mercy, Show mercy, mercy, mercy, Show mercy.” But Patzig turns a deaf ear to their repeated appeals: “You’ll find no mercy here. No mercy!” When in scene 9 the ropes finally are released, it is too late to distance the lifeboat from the sinking ship, and as the Germans start firing at the survivors, the nurses express their growing despair, repeating their chant, “Ah, a deepening sense of doom; we know what the sea can do,” marked by repeated notes in tone clusters musically suggesting the fatal proximity of the lifeboat to the rapidly sinking ship. When no hope is left and drowning is imminent, the nurses allegedly accept their fate with composure; in the opera after drowning, they become part of the “mystic chorus” that in the Wilfrid Laurier production is bathed in blue light.
“You should have seen them, Major,” Sergeant Knight tells Lyon when after surviving the deadly whirlpool he is picked up by a lifeboat. “Staring down Death, steady, brave as can be.” The two pronounce the overriding theme of the opera: “We must bear witness,” picked up by the Chorus who break the fourth wall, exhorting the audience also that “You must bear witness, In the darkest of times, … There were those who chose to walk in the light.” This final entreaty reinforces the biblical imagery of the Canadian nursing sisters lighting a candle of hope in the darkness, reflecting clearly the better angels of their nature.
Notes
- Stephanie Martin, “Writing Llandovery Castle (the Opera) Question #1s,” 10 December 2017, accessed 8 August 2023, https://stephaniemartinmusic.com/writing-llandovery-castle-the-opera-question-1/.
- Katherine Dewar, Those Splendid Girls: The Heroic Service of Prince Edward Island Nurses in the Great War (Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Island Studies Press, 2014), 110–12.
- Stephanie Martin and Paul Ciufo, Llandovery Castle [music score], revised (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, unpublished, 2018). All quotations from the opera are found in the music score unless otherwise specified.
A comprehensive list of the hundred-plus operas that include a nurse character is found on my website under BOOKS > The Nurse in History and Opera > Book Extras.
To learn more about how the nurse is portrayed on the opera stage, see Judith Barger, The Nurse in History and Opera: From Servant to Sister (Lexington Books, 2024).
