Many, many thanks to Karin for this wonderful synopsis!
ACT ONE
Prolog | Proglog/Ouverture
Duvemåla Hage | Duvemåla Meadow
Kristina is a childish and innocent young woman who lives with her parents at their farm Duvemåla in Ljuder, Sweden. She is in love with the young farmer Karl-Oscar. In this first song she is sitting on her swing waiting for him in Duvemåla Meadow.
Karl-Oscar comes running. He has good news. His parents have told him that he can take over their farm, Korpamoen. He and Kristina can finally get married!
The year is 1844. The wedding guests predict a good future for the couple. Karl-Oscar’s parents are upset. He never asked them for advice, and now he’s getting married without even asking them! But of course they are proud of him too. And everyone is happy!
A few years pass…
Farmlife in Sweden at the time is not easy. Karl-Oscar ironically calls himself the “King of Stoneland, that’s me.”
At bedtime, Kristina says a prayer. She is worried that she will get pregnant again since the family is already very big, and times are rough. Karl-Oscar is surprised when she suddenly rejects him: “You want us to say no to the joy of love for the rest of our days? If I let go you now I deny myself.” From the song title, you can guess how it ends. 😉
Karl-Oscar’s wild younger brother Robert is working as a farm-hand on another farm. He isn’t really fond of working, and the fact that he isn’t treated very well doesn’t make it any better. He likes to dream a lot.
In this song, Robert takes a break to rest by a stream, and he is jealous of the little stream that can go anywhere it likes, Out Towards the Ocean.
“You shouldn’t blame the Lord! Is it his fault that you got your wife pregnant!?” Kristina is pregnant again, which means she is very easily annoyed. This time Karl-Oscar has made the mistake to mention that he’s worried about their increasing family. Now Kristina thinks that he doesn’t love her anymore. Karl-Oscar comforts her, and explains that of course he loves her, that’s why he’s worried.
Their daughter Anna comes with a dead baby rabbit she has found. She asks if they too are going to die. Karl-Oscar answers honestly, “Yes, we all shall, Anna”. “Perhaps we shall die tomorrow?” Anna asks. “No, we probably shan’t,” Kristina answers. Anna leaves. Kristina and Karl-Oscar agree that Anna is very clever for her age. They are both so very proud of her.
Times are rough. “Last year it was flood, this year it’s all dry,” Karl-Oscar complains. “So what is this, hay or cat-hair?” he says. “You could count it, and all because of the Lord’s weather.” Kristina is upset. “You shouldn’t blame the Lord,” she says. But Karl-Oscar is angry. “You took last year’s hay, so here’s the rest!” He throws a shovel of hay into the air. Kristina is horrified. The answer to his challenge is a huge thunderstorm, which burns down their barn…
Sitting with her old quilt which was made for her wedding night, Kristina is thinking about old times. If she hadn’t fallen off her swing, injured her knee and been sent to the doctor, she would never have met Karl-Oscar. Then she probably wouldn’t have been married, and all her beloved children would have been born. Would have happened then? She thinks that God must have wanted her to fall off her swing on that specific, lucky day.
Robert shows up. He has been beaten and blood is running from his ear. Karl-Oscar is furious when he hears what has happened. “That coward will pay for this! I’ll show him who he dares to beat!!” They all agree that Robert should stay with Karl-Oscar and Kristina at Korpamoen.
But Robert doesn’t want to stay at Korpamoen. He has come to get his share of the inheritance. He is going to North America. Karl-Oscar is very surprised, and reveals that has also had these thoughts. They both try to convince Kristina that it’s a wise decision to go, but her answer is an unequivocable NO!! “There are evil snakes and crocodiles I’ve heard. And there you want to take the kids? No one else from here is moving.”
Kristina’s uncle Danjel is a free-church minister, considered odd by the rest of the parish. He and his little congregation dream about freedom, about a place where their quiet services won’t be interrupted by the police. They dream about America, the new Sion, the new Jerusalem!
The one whose dreams are strongest is probably Ulrike, the village whore, who has now been turned into a true Christian by Danjel. He is the first one who has ever been nice to her, and she wouldn’t dream of letting him, or Jesus, down again.
Ulrika has decided to take her daughter, Elin, to a place where no one will look down on her because she’s Ulrika’s daughter. Ulrika also, in her mind, thanks all the men who treated her badly, giving her the courage and strength to leave Sweden.
Starvation. Before a celebration, Kristina and Karl-Oscar’s daughter Anna finds the hidden pot with porridge and gorges herself to death. Kristina decides that if God now takes her children away here on the farm, they might as well be on the ocean, since it obviously doesn’t seem to matter where they are anyway. She will follow Karl-Oscar to America.
The guests at the funeral sing the voice of America: “Come all to me. All who are starving. You have the people we miss. We have the land that you need.”
Packing and planning. Kristina is pregnant again, but since they have planned to go in the springtime, that’s what they’ll do. They go to the minister to ‘sign out’ of the congregation.
Minister Brusander and his people try to convince Karl-Oscar and the others not to leave. “Within fifty years that land is gone from this earth.” But the crowd is eager to get away, and even though they are frightened, nothing Brusander says can make them stay in Sweden.
“In our hometown, we saw forests, mountains and meadows. Here on the ocean we only see the same water every day.”
Of course, when there is a huge crowd in a small place for a long time, lice show up. When Kristina, who tries to keep very clean, discovered that she and her family have lice, she becomes furious. Who brought these creatures on the ship anyway? Kristina thinks about it, and comes to the conclusion that it has to be Ulrika. A sinner like Ulrika must have lice! They start to argue! The older woman who sings is Fina-Lisa. To calm them down, she tells the history of the louse.
Kristina is ill. She has a nosebleed that won’t stop, and she probably won’t survive the night. Karl-Oscar watches over her. He pictures a life without her, and for the first time he starts to wonder if his decision to leave Sweden was so wise. “You have to stay! Forgive me, Kristina, I should have listened. You mustn’t leave me my love!”
Kristina doesn’t die. But Danjel’s wife, Inga-Lena does, like a lot of others.
Finally they all arive in New York, and are allowed to step off the boat for the first time in months. At this point everyone is just glad they’ve survived this far. They have agreed that they should head for Minnesota, especially since Fina-Lisa’s son is already there (though Robert is dreaming about taking a ship to the gold mines in California…)
But first they have to rest, and then end up in the area around Broadway. The new culture comes as a shock to them, they whisper and point: “Look at that dress and that hat. Isn’t it amazing, the skirt that woman wears.” And they are confused: “The language is all backwards. Does anyone understand? Do they talk about us? And we stand here like fools!”
Kristina remembers a ship she saw on the ocean. It had a Swedish flag, and was going in the opposite direction. That ship was going Home. But she and her family, where are they going? Will she ever find a place for her children to call home? “Home, where is it? Who can answer? Now it’s Midsummer and dance at Mom and Dad’s. The road we go leads away, never back.”
The journey goes on by train, and then by steamboats. On one of the boats they are confronted with a cholera epidemic, and a few of the children die. On this journey a couple of things also happen that make Kristina and Ulrika start to accept one another, and after a while they even become the closest of friends. Finally they end up in Stillwater. In the middle of a heavy rainstorm, they are left in the deserted harbour – exhausted, terrified and now also wet.
Danjel prays that the Lord will look after them and lead them right. They have no idea where to go. But “one thing is certain: to our native country, we will never again return.”
In Stillwater the immigrants are taken care of by Minister Jackson. He gives them food and shelter, washes their clothes, and also does all the household work himself, leaving no work at all for the highly impressed women. This, they all agree, is a real gentleman, and a real minister. A big problem, though, is the language.
Unpacking the enormous coffin that hasn’t been opened since they left Ljuder is a great joy, and they find lots of beloved things they don’t even remember having packed. But the smell of camphor and lavender, which was commonly used to protect against odours, also brings back memories of their old country. Maybe this place could be made a home after all…
Robert is bored. Very bored. He wants to get away to the gold fields, and he wants to go now. His friend Arvid is honoured to be asked to come with him. Karl-Oscar finds the idea very supid, and tries to make them stay. After all, Robert is only 18 and very childish. But nothing Karl-Oscar says can stop the boys from leaving.
Kristina sits with her newborn baby. This baby was carried safely across the ocean, and then “thrown out into this dangerous, strange world.” It has never seen Sweden, and will therefore only know it’s new native country, America. No lost memories, only stories.
“One day you will ask your mother
How it was, how it came that I left
Is it still there, that place
That was your home? you ask
As long as my heart can beat
It’s still there, shall forever remain
Beyond this New World
That saw you be born, my friend
There the apples still ripen
Across a wide ocean
There stands my astrakan”
By the time the second act starts, the Swedish settlers have formed a little village. They feel free here, where there are no high priests to rule over their every move. In this song they rejoice, and tell their own reasons for leaving Sweden: Ulrika (who was sold at an auction when she was four), Danjel, Fina-Kajsa (who followed her son) and Karl-Oscar (“If I regret one single thing it is that I didn’t come here long ago”)
Kristina wants to go home! She misses her parents, and she misses Sweden and the fair spring evenings. “Every night I go back, and the road gets longer and longer to the land Far Away and Long Ago.” She prays that God will take her back.
Karl-Oscar shows up. He has overheard her prayer. Kristina asks him, “Do you ever, like me, long for our old home and our loved ones?” Karl-Oscar replies that it happens, but he has brought something to remind him why they left. This is Anna’s old shoes…he says one day their children will thank them for moving here. He also reveals that he has thought about asking her father to send them some seeds from Kristina’s apple tree in Sweden so she can have her own Swedish apple tree in the States.
Kristina is still thinking about what Karl-Oscar said about their children. “Our children will never feel the pain of longing. No clear sights from my past will they sees. Not hear the sound of laughter in the dawn, as echoes from their childhood years.”
Christmas. Karl-Oscar has secretly bought a stove (called “The Queen of the Prairie”) for Kristina, and now he and the children try to smuggle it into the house without waking her. When they wake her up she’s amazed, and they all agree that it’s as if the Christmas Angel has blessed their home. They throw a big Christmas party for the villagers, who all admire the wonderful stove, and rejoice in the feeling of luxury.
Karl-Oscar is proud of his new freedom, and his land, and he doesn’t hesitate to mention it. Fur hunger Nöjd replies that Karl-Oscar shouldn’t speak of “his” land, as land can not be owned. Karl-Oscar protests: he has bought all this, following the law. But Nöjd means that even though Karl-Oscar has bought this land, it was originally stolen from the Indians.
Karl-Oscar and the settlers claim their land. Before they came, there only grew wild grass. Isn’t it better that it is used for growing potatoes and other foods? After working in stony Ljuder, and then starting all over here, they deserve this land!
After many years, Robert suddenly shows up with lots of gold, but alone. Kristina, who is alone at home with the children, soon understands that something is very wrong. Robert is ill. Very ill. And he has changed. He says that he is now reconciled with his destiny.
Robert gives Kristina Arvid’s watch. He tells her that Arvid suffered and died in a desert, and he blames himself for bringing him in the first place when he couldn’t care for him. The title means that all the gold in the word couldn’t make up for this loss.
The money Robert has brought home for Karl-Oscar and Kristina proves to be false (so-called “Wild Cat Money”) and not worth a cent. Karl-Oscar, who always suspected the worst, is furious and says that Robert knew this all the time. Robert tries to defend himself (in English and Swedish!). The song ends when Karl-Oscar hits him. Kristina makes Karl-Oscar apologize to Robert, and they leave.
The lyrics to this song are the same as in Act One. Robert is left alone by a little stream. He is fully aware that he is dying. Finally he will find the peace he has been searching for all his life, his soul will follow the stream towards the ocean.
Here in the States, nobody knows Ulrika’s background, and she has many suitors. Well, at least three of them, but they’re quite eager to win her. The second one is Norweigan!
Ulrika pays no attention to any of these three though. Minister Jackson has also proposed, and as she loves him, she has said yes!
Kristina and Ulrika think of their past. It was really a wonder of the Lord that they found each other, thinking of how much they used to argue. Now they are the best of friends, and Kristina wishes Ulrika all the best, all the love that she herself has received in her marriage.
Before she can get married, Ulrika has to be baptized. And so Minister Jackson baptizes her in the lake of Ki-Chi-Saga.
Right after the baptizing ceremony, Kristina has a miscarriage. Ulrika, who is closest at the moment, takes her to the doctor.
Ulrika is sent by the doctor to make Karl-Oscar as frightened about Kristina’s condition as she possibly can. Kristina must never get pregnant again, or she will certainly die. Karl-Oscar is already really worried (too worried to get angry at Ulrika for hinting that he can’t take care of his wife) about his beloved Kristina. Ulrika doesn’t say it to him, but she feels sorry for Karl-Oscar.
For the first time in her life, Kristina is doubting. She has always tried to do the right thing, follow the way of the Lord, accepting her destiny, and still He keeps turning her world upside down. Now the terrifying little word “if” has started spinning in her head. What is there is no God? What will she do then? All her prayers would have been in vain. Everything she has ever believed in would be gone.
Here it is the opposite way from “Min Lust Till Dej”. Kristina can’t bear staying away from Karl-Oscar. “It’s God’s will, I know, that husband and wife should be together. Whatever you and I decide to do, He does with us what he wants.” This far I have survived, she says. Karl-Oscar is stubborn, but when she throws his own words (from Act One) in his face he finally gives in.
The Indians have been put aside for a very long time, and finally they revolt. As the settlers and the Indians are practically neighbours, the situation becomes quite complicated for the settlers. Red Iron is one of the leaders in the Indian revolt.
Kristina is pregnant again. Karl-Oscar is terrified and overcome with guilt. Kristina has never seen him this frightened before, and she prays to God for the strength to comfort him, since lately she has become so weak and tired…
The Swedish settlers flee in despair from everything they have built and created, again their hopes of a new Home lost.
The only ones staying behind in the village are Karl-Oscar and Kristina, as she just isn’t strong enough to go anywhere. Karl-Oscar is contantly sitting by Kristina’s bed, watching over her. Kristina comforts him by saying that she is safe now, whatever happens, she is not afraid anymore. “You and I will meet again.”
Karl-Oscar assures her taht she will get well soon, even though he knows deep inside that she is dying. “You have a fever, you are still delirious.” There are apples on Kristina’s astrakan for the first time. Karl-Oscar has picked one for her.
Kristina is calm, her life running away fast. “Do you remember Duvemåla Meadow where I used to wait for you? There by the gate I will be waiting, until you’re with me again.” She tells him an angel is watching over her, and will take care of her. She will be forever safe.
Kristina is gone. Karl-Oscar breaks down in tears. Kristina’s swing is lowered from the ceiling.