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After Life

Cipullo, Tom

SKU
8557*
E. C. Schirmer Music Company
Grouped product items
Product Name Qty
After Life (Piano/Vocal Score) - 8557
$28.00
After Life (Additional Full Score) - 8557A
$80.00
After Life (Libretto) - 8557B
$10.00
After Life (Downloadable Libretto) - file_8557B-E
$10.00
More Information
SKU8557*
Composer/ArrangerCipullo, Tom
Text AuthorMason, David
Voicing & InstrumentsMezzo-Soprano, High Baritone, Soprano
InstrumentationFlute, B-flat Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano
Rental DeptFull score and parts available for rental. Click here to request a quote or order.
DifficultyDifficult
Text LanguageEnglish
Popular Opera SearchesMost Performed, Duration: 30-60 min, One Act/Chamber Opera
Duration45'
Reviews

Cipullo’s musical language, rooted in tonality with generous helpings of dissonance, is direct, succinct and original. His thorough understanding of the human voice allows him to create fully dimensional characters that are sympathetic and imminently believable… [a] finely wrought exploration of the role of art in times of grave crisis.
-Washington Post, April 4, 2016

…a compelling hour of musical theater.
-Seattle Gay News, May 15, 2015

...inventive, pitch-perfect, thought-provoking and refreshing.
-Oregon ArtsWatch

"Cipullo showed his creative versatility, writing strident, rhythmic music for Picasso, more chromatic and complex music for Stein and gentle, rather etheral music for the Girl. Mason's libretto was clear and to the point. The overall effect was one of thoughtful poignancy, never drifting into the maudlin or into abject moralizing." -Arlo McKinnon, Opera News

PremierMay 11, 2015, Music of Remembrance (Seattle)
Notable & Recent PerformancesMusic of Remembrance
Loyola University New Orleans, 2018
Chelsea Opera, 2018
Opera Colorado, 2019
PublisherE. C. Schirmer Music Company

Music:
Composed by Tom Cipullo.

Libretto:
Written by David Mason.

Roles:
GERTRUDE STEIN Mezzo-Soprano
PABLO PICASSO High Baritone
GIRL (teen, a victim of the Holocaust)Soprano

Synopsis:
Chamber Opera in One Act. After Life imagines a post-mortem reunion of Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. Stein believes her beloved Alice B. Toklas has conjured her back to life, while Picasso wonders which of his many lovers has called him up from the abyss. When both realize, to their disappointment, that their great loves are not present, the two towering figures discuss their lives, their complex relationship, and their activities during the Second World War. Their outsized egos clash, resentment between them boils over and, as they confront each other, a third voice rises from the darkness. A young girl, a victim of the Holocaust, appears, and it is her questioning that has brought Stein and Picasso back from the dead. Why did she die while they lived on? Can the two artists, whose work endures, ever know death as she does? Who will remember her, when she barely remembers herself?