| SKU | 4206 |
|---|---|
| Composer/Arranger | Susa, Conrad |
| Text Author | Street, Richard; Susa, Conrad |
| Voicing & Instruments | Grand Opera in Three Acts and a Prologue |
| Rental Dept | Full score and parts available for rental. Click here to request a quote or order. |
| Popular Opera Searches | Duration: 90+ min, Full Length Opera |
| Duration | 180' |
| Reviews | Heavy ideological baggage for opera, surely. But the conveyance - Susa's remarkable score - carries it smoothly. Susa has written, surely, one of the most American of operas, a work as American in its musical idioms (period ballads, prohibition songs, church music, et al.) as it is American in literary theme: loneliness, isolation, the individual vs. the crowd. From the deft orchestration... to the wealth of lovely choral writing… to the set pieces, the arias, and ensembles, Susa has written a score that is not only dramatic but that captures in its very sound a hauntingly lonely quality that is so often mentioned in regard to the work of Aaron Copland - but it's not Copland. It's Susa. |
| Premier | November 1975, Minnesota Opera |
| Notable & Recent Performances | Opera St. Louis, 1994, revised version, following a thorough revision in 1981 Juilliard School |
| Publisher | E. C. Schirmer Music Company |
Libretto:
Written by Richard Street and Conrad Susa
Synopsis:
Grand Opera in 3 Acts with a Prologue. The opera presents vignettes relating the stories of three women, their lives, and their losses at the foot of the Black River. Clara, preoccupied with the memory of her infant son's death by drowning in the Black River 12 years earlier, sews a quilt and dulls her despair with the aid of a cocaine-based medicine. Lucy, her step-daughter, is engaged to marry a man she does not love. Pauline, living in the state mental hospital, mourns the passing of her career as an opera singer and the estranged relationship between herself and her son. Soon after Lucy and Ben are married, Ben dies, leaving Lucy, who has just begun to truly love her husband, alone and pregnant. Their wedding is transformed into a funeral. Pauline reconciles with her son and leaves the hospital and Black River Falls forever. Lucy also departs, in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere. Clara, having finished her quilt, takes it to the banks of the river, saturates it with kerosene, and sets it and her body on fire.
| Roles: | |
| CLARA GRAY, a housewife turning 40 | Mezzo-Soprano |
| LUCY GRAY HOLLAND, Clara's 18-year old stepdaughter | Soprano |
| PAULINE L'ALLEMAND, an opera singer past her prime | Soprano |
| REVERAND WOODS, a Lutheran pastor | Tenor |
| HORACE GRAY, Clara's husband, Lucy's father/JACOB SPAULDING, founding settler of Black River Falls | Bass-Baritone |
| BEN HOLLAND, Lucy's late husband, 18 years old | Baritone |
| COLONEL C.C. POPE, Civil War veteran/Square Dance Caller | Tenor |
| P.H. HOWELL, old codger, friend of Pope's | Tenor |
| HANNAH COLE, Temperance League leader | Mezzo-Soprano |
| HERR 6 3/4, character in Pauline's operetta/HENRI L'ALLEMAND, Pauline's husband/EDGAR L'ALLEMAND, Pauline's teen-age son | Baritone |
| HERR DREI, character in Pauline's operetta/LEO DELIBES, Parisien composer | Tenor |
| DOCTOR KROHN, physician at Mendota State Hospital/DUDLEY GRAY, Horace's father | Baritone |
| MISS DOROTHY SNITE, spinster teacher/MRS. DUDLEY GRAY, Horace's mother | Mezzo-Soprano |
| HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL | Tenor |
| FRANK HOLAND, Ben's merchant father | Tenor |
| MRS. FRANK HOLLAND, Ben's mother | Mute |
| BARTENDER | Baritone |
| THOMAS WOOD, a logger | Tenor |
| ANDREW WOOD, his brother | Baritone |
| ONSTAGE CHORUS (supplemented off-stage) | SSAATTBB |
