Notes on the Music

It was the swiftly changing moods and transient emotions that drew me to Katherine Mansfield’s short story as a libretto for this chamber opera in one, continuous act. I love that the story is told through quick and seamless shifts of register: from scenes of “objective” dialogue between Vera and her former lover to Vera’s internal monologues, memories and interior musings that give us access to her complex inner life and great psychological depth. 

The dialogue between the two characters (which is too frequently a one-sided filibuster by the man) and the highly charged emotional and psychological passages with Vera are each treated differently in the music and visuals of this production, and I hope that you’ll see and hear those highlighted. They give the piece it’s structure and form as well as convey the impact and truths of the story. The music of the dialogues, the conservative world of our conversants, was inspired by a Victorian-era piece of sheet music I found in the Newberry Library in Chicago. “Love’s Entreaty” features music by Mansfield sister, Vera (!) Beauchamp and lyrics by Mansfield herself (under her maiden name, Kathleen Beauchamp) with a 1904 handwritten dedication to Ida, a woman who is thought to be Mansfield’s lover. Though this music doesn’t literally appear in the opera, the song’s sense and sensibility inform the music of the cafe and the opera’s setting; It is more proper and carefully attentive to conventions (like tonality). The music of memory, thought and emotion draws more on the nascent expressionist and surrealist arts movements of that moment, and I’ve used musical materials and techniques appropriate to express this wider range of emotional content. 

There’s one moment to look out for near the end, the work’s signal moment of epiphany. There’s only one place where Vera and the man sing together. It occurs when they reach a harmonious understanding of their situation but also acknowledge the impossible barriers to their relationship. The piece winds down after that with Vera’s abrupt exit, a settling of the bill and an instrumental coda. The chamber opera eventually loses energy and slips out — like Vera’s departure.

— by the composer