2023 American Song: Time

AMERCAN SONG: TIME JANUARY 28, 2023 7:00 P.M. Featuring: The Opera Colorado Artists in Residence Oleg Bellini, Pianist Cherity Koepke, Director Elaine Wolf Theatre at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center

AMERICAN SONG:TIME SPONSORED BY

PAMELA BEARDSLEY AND CAROL WHITLEY

HOSTED BY

FEATURING OPERA COLORADO’S 2022-23 ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

Francesca Mehrotra | soprano

Joanne Evans | mezzo-soprano

David Soto Zambrana | tenor

Dante Mireles | baritone

Michael Leyte-Vidal | bass-baritone

Turner Staton | bass-baritone

Oleg Bellini | pianist

DIRECTED BY

CHERITY KOEPKE Director of Opera Colorado’s Artist in Residence Program

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

“A

merican Song: Time. When I started down the path of creating this year’s program, I don’t think I realized just how impactful the theme would be. Spending the past year looking at the concept of time has been challenging and enlightening. I knew that time, as a concept, would be difficult to define because it’s elusive, but also present in every moment. Time impacts every second of every hour of every day. It can both move slowly and speed past us seemingly all at once. It’s a form of memory, a way we measure our lives, and something we can’t ever make more of, no matter how hard we might try. Just think about the number of quotes or famous sayings that have the word “time” in them. “Time flies,” “Time is money,” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” “Time waits for no man,” “Time and time again.” We want to find time to slow down but worry about having too much time on our hands. Time is said to be a gift, a curse, a healer, and a thief. It’s a complex thing—time. How then, could I find a way to effectively communicate this theme? Through music, the universal language, that’s how. Music can communicate so much more than mere words can. I read a quote as I was working on the program that said it best, “Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.”

So, I set about looking at time as musical decoration. I found gem after gem when researching and selecting the program’s repertoire. By the end of my search, I had compiled a list of over seventyfive pieces, just over twenty of which made the final cut. Some pieces I’ve known for years but had never really looked at them through the lens of time. Pieces like the “Tonight” quintet from West Side Story or “Laurie’s Aria” from The Tender Land. Other pieces were completely new to me and spoke volumes the first time I heard them, like Julia Meinwald’s setting of “Time Does Not Bring Relief” or “On And On And On.” Still, others have been on my list for ages and, like puzzle pieces, finally fit into the program that was meant for them. And, at the top of my list, there were pieces from Opera Colorado’s history that deserved to be remembered and honored; it’s our 40th Anniversary after all! The journey to put it all together took time—there’s that word again. In fact, when I look back on the process, there’s not a single part of it that time hasn’t touched.

That brings us to today, when we put it all in front of you, our audience, and time yet again becomes part of the story. I think there’s something special, almost sacred, about a group of people coming together and sharing an experience like this. Every performance feeds off the energy of who is there sharing the space, so every performance is different. It can’t be recreated.

During this evening’s performance, we’re quite literally sharing a moment in time. Our exceptional Artists in Residence are ready for this moment and excited to take the stage to go on this journey with you.

It’s time. Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy American Song: Time.

Cherity Koepke Director

”

ORDER OF PROGRAM

AMERICAN SONG: TIME SET I: MEASURES OF TIME “Time” “Ten Minutes Ago” “Night” “Time Heals Everything” “Tonight”

David Soto Zambrana Francesca Mehrotra, Dante Mireles Michael Leyte-Vidal Dante Mireles Opera Colorado Artists in Residence

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED “The Prison Scene” “Act One, Scene Five" “To Know” “I Remember”

Francesca Mehrotra, Michael Leyte-Vidal Francesca Mehrotra, David Soto Zambrana Joanne Evans, Turner Staton Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans, Dante Mireles

SET III: PASSAGE OF TIME “In Time of Silver Rain” “Laurie’s Aria” “Not A Day Goes By” “On And On And On”

David Soto Zambrana Francesca Mehrotra Michael Leyte-Vidal Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans

SET IV: TIME OF LOVE AND LOSS “All the Wasted Time” “Time Does Not Bring Relief” “If I Have To Live Alone”

Joanne Evans, Turner Staton Francesca Mehrotra Michael Leyte-Vidal

SET V: MOMENTS IN TIME “The Feast of Crispian” “The Fifth of November” “Moments in the Woods” “That Moment On”

Turner Staton Michael Leyte-Vidal Joanne Evans Dante Mireles

SET VI: TIME TO LAUGH “Toothbrush Time” “Airport Song” “Getting Married Today”

Joanne Evans Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans, David Soto Zambrana, Turner Staton Opera Colorado Artists in Residence

Unless otherwise indicated, program notes are written by Cherity Koepke

SET I: MEASURES OF TIME “Moments into minutes. Minutes into hours.

Hours into days. Days into years. Years into possibility. This will linger.”

-DAVID LEVITHAN

David Soto Zambrana

“Time” From the musical Tuck Everlasting Music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen

Miller and Tysen are an American musical theater songwriting team consisting of composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen. They started collaborating in 1999 at New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Together they have written the scores to The Burnt Part Boys, Fugitive Songs, and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Their musical Tuck Everlasting premiered in 2016 and is based upon the American children’s novel of the same name by Natalie Babbitt. The story of immortality centers around the Tuck family and a young girl named Winnie Foster. The song “Time” is sung by the character Miles Tuck.

TEXT I had a farmhouse with a grandfather clock Where I would teach time to my son.

Our lessons began at twelve o’clock sharp, When the hands would come in as one.

I’d say, “The big hand counts minutes.

It’s so tightly wound, It chases the small hand To make hours go round.”

I taught Thomas constellations in the sky, To tell a silver maple from a cottonwood.

I taught Thomas to divide and multiply, But what he never understood was time.

As I watched him grow. Time.

He would never know time: Where my regret resides. Time.

If I only knew the what, and how, and who, That time truly divides.

There was a farmhouse With a grandfather clock Where one day I woke up alone, They feared I was magic.

They feared I was cursed.

But mostly they feared the unknown.

The big hand’s the father, The small hand’s the son, And there never came a time When they came back as one.

I taught Thomas how to catch a firefly How to make a pebble skip And rowboat skim.

She took Thomas and never said goodbye.

The one thing I could never give to him Was time. Time.

I’m left with nothing, Nothing but time.

SET I: MEASURES OF TIME “Ten Minutes Ago” From the musical Cinderella Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Francesca Mehrotra, Dante Mireles

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a musical based upon the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre (Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper), by Charles Perrault. Cinderella is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television. It was originally broadcast live, in color on CBS on March 31, 1957, as a vehicle for Julie Andrews, who played the title role. The broadcast was viewed by more than 100 million people. It was subsequently remade for television twice, in 1965 and 1997. The musical has been adapted for the stage in a number of versions, including a London West End pantomime adaptation, a New York City Opera production that follows the original television version closely, and various touring productions. In the duet “Ten Minutes Ago,” the Prince and Cinderella sing just moments after their romantic waltz and realize that, in just a few minutes, their lives have been changed.

TEXT PRINCE Ten minutes ago, I saw you.

I looked up when you came Through the door.

My head started reeling; You gave me the feeling The room had no ceiling or floor.

CINDERELLA In the arms of my love, I’m flying Over mountain and meadow and glen, And I like it so well That for all I can tell I may never come down again.

I may never come down to earth again.

Ten minutes ago, I met you, And we murmured our how-do-you-dos.

I wanted to ring out the bells And fling out my arms And to sing out the news:

BOTH I have found her/him!

She’s an angel, With the dust of the stars in her eyes!

We are dancing, We are flying, And he’s taking me back to the skies.

In the arms of my love I’m flying Over mountain and meadow and glen, And I like it so well That for all I can tell I may never come down again!

I may never come down to earth again!

I have found her!

She’s an angel, With the dust of the stars in her eyes.

BOTH We are dancing, We are flying, And she’s taking me back to the skies.

SET I: MEASURES OF TIME Michael Leyte-Vidal

“Night” Art song Music by Florence Price, poem by Louise Wallace

Florence Price (1887-1953) is widely admired as the first African American woman to be a successful a composer of symphonies in the 1930s. She worked in a wide range of genres, and her style is eclectic.

Much of Price’s output of over 300 compositions remains unpublished. She was generous with her scores and did not keep a ccatalog. Much of her music is held by the University of Arkansas, but her art songs are mainly held in the Marian Anderson Collection at the University of Pennsylvania. Price wrote around 100 songs in all, seventy-five of them Art Songs. “Night” is an Art Song set to one of the only known surviving poems of Louise C. Wallace. The music is woven with the text to evoke the iconic imagery of a starlit night.

TEXT Night comes, a Madonna clad in scented blue.

Rose red her mouth and deep her eyes, She lights her stars, and turns to where, Beneath her silver lamp the moon, Upon a couch of shadow lies A dreamy child, The wearied Day. IMAGE | Photo of Florence Price from Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas

Dante Mireles

“Time Heals Everything” From the musical Mack & Mabel Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman

Mack & Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of his biggest stars. The original 1974 Broadway production starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. It received eight Tony Award nominations, and the music was widely praised. Perhaps the most well-known piece from the show, “Time Heals Everything,” illustrates the impact one person has on another and how their presence, or absence, can affect how we measure time.

TEXT Time heals everything, Tuesday, Thursday, Time heals everything, April, August.

If I’m patient the break will mend, And one fine morning the hurt will end.

So make the moments fly, Autumn, Winter, I’ll forget you by,

Next year, Some year.

Though it’s hell that I’m going through.

Some Tuesday, Thursday, April, August, Autumn, Winter, Next year, Some year.

Time heals everything, But loving you.

SET I: MEASURES OF TIME “Tonight” From the musical West Side Story Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Opera Colorado Artists in Residence

Inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Bernstein’s West Side Story has become one of the most widely recognized musicals in history. The story is set in the mid-1950s, in a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The original 1957 Broadway production marked Sondheim’s Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 1958, winning two.

A 1961 musical film adaptation starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including Best Picture. A 2021 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, starred Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler. That film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with six additional nominations, winning one Oscar. The “Tonight” quintet is the penultimate moment in act one. As the main characters sing together, they dramatically set in motion the events to come. The music and the text brilliantly converge to tell five different storylines at once, looking to the past, present, and future at the same time.

TEXT JETS The Jets are gonna have their day Tonight.

SHARKS The Sharks are gonna have their way Tonight.

JETS The Puerto Ricans grumble: “Fair fight.”

But if they start a rumble, We’ll rumble ‘em right.

SHARKS We’re gonna hand ‘em a surprise Tonight.

JETS We’re gonna cut ‘em down to size Tonight.

SHARKS We said, “O.K., no rumpus, No tricks.”

But just in case they jump us, We’re ready to mix Tonight!

ALL We’re gonna rock it tonight, We’re gonna jazz it up and have us a ball!

They’re gonna get it tonight.

The more they turn it on, The harder they’ll fall.

JETS Well, they began it!

SHARKS Well, they began it!

ALL And we’re the ones to stop ‘em Once and for all, Tonight!

ANITA Anita’s gonna get her kicks Tonight.

We’ll have our private little mix Tonight.

He’ll walk in hot and tired, So what?

Don’t matter if he’s tired, As long as he’s hot Tonight.

TONY Tonight, tonight, Won’t be just any night, Tonight there will be no morning star.

Tonight, tonight, I’ll see my love tonight.

And for us, stars will stop where they are.

Today The minutes seem like hours, The hours go so slowly, And still the sky is light.

SET I: MEASURES OF TIME Oh moon, grow bright, And make this endless day endless night!

(JETS, SHARKS, MARIA, TONY, and ANITA sing simultaneously)

RIFF (to TONY) I’m counting on you to be there Tonight.

When Diesel wins it fair and square Tonight.

That Puerto Rican punk’ll Go down.

And when he’s hollered “Uncle” We’ll tear up the town!

BERNARDO AND SHARKS We’re gonna rock it tonight!

They’re gonna get it tonight.

They began it, they began it, They began it.

We’ll stop ‘em once and for all.

The Sharks are gonna have their way, The Sharks are gonna have their day, We’re gonna rock it tonight,

(RIFF, TONY, and MARIA sing simultaneously)

ANITA Tonight, tonight, Late tonight, We’re gonna mix it tonight.

Anita’s gonna have her day, Anita’s gonna have her day, Bernardo’s gonna have his way Tonight, tonight, Tonight, this very night, We’re gonna rock it tonight,

MARIA Tonight, tonight Won’t be just any night, Tonight there will be no morning star.

RIFF So I can count on you, boy?

TONY All right.

RIFF We’re gonna have us a ball.

TONY All right.

RIFF I’ll see you there about eight.

TONY Tonight...

BERNARDO AND SHARKS We’re gonna rock it tonight!

ANITA Tonight...

RIFF AND JETS We’re gonna jazz it tonight!

Tonight!

They began it, And we’re the ones to stop ‘em Once and for all!

The Jets are gonna have their way, The Jets are gonna have their day, We’re gonna rock it tonight, MARIA Tonight, tonight, I’ll see my love tonight.

And for us, stars will stop where they are.

MARIA AND TONY Today the minutes seem like hours.

The hours go so slowly, And still the sky is light.

Oh moon, grow bright, And make this endless day endless night, ALL Tonight!

IMAGE | Photo of Upper West Side NYC neighborhood in 1950 from Museum of the City of New York

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED “History takes time. History makes memory.”

-GERTRUDE STEIN

In celebration of the 40th Anniversary Season, we remember some of the American operas that Opera Colorado has produced and have become part of its history and legacy.

“The Prison Scene” From the opera The Scarlet Letter Music by Lori Laitman, libretto by David Mason

Francesca Mehrotra, Michael Leyte-Vidal

In May 2016, Opera Colorado embarked on its first world premiere with the opera The Scarlet Letter. With music by American composer Lori Laitman and a libretto by former Colorado poet laureate David Mason, the opera is based on the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 2017, a recording of the premiere was released on the Naxos label and featured Laura Claycomb as Hester Prynne, Margaret Gawrysiak as Mistress Hibbons, Dominic Armstrong as Arthur Dimmesdale, Malcolm MacKenzie as Roger Chillingworth, Daniel Belcher as Governor Bellingham, the Opera Colorado Orchestra and Chorus, and Maestro Ari Pelto. In act one, scene two of the opera, Hester Prynne comes face to face with her husband Roger Chillingworth, a man she believed to be dead for more than two years. Their confrontation takes place in the jail cell where Hester is being held, on charges of adultery, with her infant daughter, Pearl.

TEXT

HESTER I know not how.

CHILLINGWORTH She is your child. She is none of mine.

I am a doctor, though, And sworn to heal All human creatures born.

Now one more potion I have made for you Whom I knew as a maid.

CHILLINGWORTH But you know me.

HESTER If it were poison I might drink.

HESTER I do.

I thought you dead these two years passed.

CHILLINGWORTH Do you not know me, Hester Prynne?

Know that I would have you live With shame that burns upon your breast.

Now truly know me, Hester Prynne.

My eyes grown dim from candlelight, An aging man, a mindful man, Too long a student of the night.

When I was young I dreamt of love, The fond endearments of the flesh As lovers fit like and hand glove, But now my heart is turned to ash.

CHILLINGWORTH Hester, Hester Prynne.

Be not afraid. I come as a physician.

Is the child ill?

CHILLINGWORTH I have a potion for the child To give her strength to bear this cross.

HESTER Would you deny her innocence?

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED I was misshapen all my life This crooked back, This lurching gait But hoped the scientific knife Could carve a more illustrious fate.

Perhaps some pretty girl would see The beauty of my mind.

None did.

I walked out of the dismal wood.

This settlement of Christian men Shall not know who I am for good.

I saw you on the scaffold then.

HESTER Then I have done you grievous wrong.

CHILLINGWORTH We’ve done each other wrong.

I too must bear responsibility, Who plucked your budding youth away And wedded you to my decay.

HESTER Remember I was frank with you.

Remember I was frank with you.

I was so young.

I never lied.

I shut the door on life and cried some Galant man might rescue me.

I married you, you married me.

Always searching for a father, Though all men be made of clay, I saw you in that English weather And thought it was my dancing day.

The pattern and the mystery, The sorrow of a love gone wrong, This is my secret history, This is the burden of my song.

CHILLINGWORTH Will you never say the name, The father of your sleeping child?

You make me wonder why I came, Only to find your heart grown cold.

You kindled life in me, but now, I am a stranger to us both.

It is his name that I must know and I will learn it, by my troth!

For I shall know your paramour.

Betray me not unto the town.

I bear the name of Chillingworth.

They do not know me, Who I am, Nothing of my English birth.

My name and motive are my own I could denounce you, cast you off, Revenge is leaner than a bone, But I shall have, have it, do not, scoff!

HESTER A secret then, protecting me, CHILLINGWORTH As you protect your secret love.

This is my choice to pry the truth, HESTER Too young was I, and did not know CHILLINGWORTH In secret life from out this town.

HESTER That love would come disguised as truth, With my own hand I made the letter Embroidered here, Over my heart, With my own hand I made the letter CHILLINGWORTH The letter that you wear Will give you bad dreams, Must you wear it in your sleep?

HESTER I would have died But love gave me this Sleeping child, who is my life, my heart!

CHILLINGWORTH My heart has died to human love.

HESTER Love gave me life!

CHILLINGWORTH I will possess your lover’s name.

HESTER Your acts are mercy but your words, Your words interpret you as terror.

HESTER Love gave me life!

CHILLINGWORTH Hester, do not treat me hard,

CHILLINGWORTH Hester, Hester Prynne,

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED HESTER No! CHILLINGWORTH I will have his name, his life HESTER Oh! You are a devil now, Haunting the forest?

Am I bonded to you for all my life, Will you have my soul?

CHILLINGWORTH Your soul, Hester Prynne?

Your soul? No, Hester Prynne, Not yours!

HESTER By medicine or alchemy, Sleep on, my child, sleep on.

IMAGE | Photo of the artwork for Opera Colorado’s 2016 production of The Scarlet Letter

“Act One, Scene Five” From the opera Steal a Pencil for Me Music by Gerald Cohen, libretto by Deborah Brevoort

Francesca Mehrotra, David Soto Zambrana

In 2018, Opera Colorado saw its second world premiere with Steal a Pencil for Me. The opera is based on the true story of Jaap and Ina Polak, whom the composer knew for more than twenty-five years. A love story full of hope, and a drama of overcoming great adversity, Steal a Pencil for Me is set during the dark times of World War II concentration camps. In creating the opera, Cohen and Brevoort had the extraordinary opportunity to spend many hours speaking with Jaap and Ina, getting much rich detail about their lives, the world they in which grew up in Amsterdam before the war, and their experience of deprivation, loss, love, and hope while in the concentration camps. The story was first written as a book in 2000, and in 2007 was made into a compelling and award-winning documentary feature film by Academy Award nominee Michèle Ohayon. In “Act One, Scene Five,” Ina sings with her lost fiancée Rudi Acohen, who is part vision, part memory.

TEXT INA Rudi! Rudi! Where did you go?

I need to know You’re coming back…aren’t you?

As soon as the war is over We’re getting married.

Right? Rudi? Right?

RUDI Come here, pretty Ina, kiss me.

INA Rudi…Rudi!

Where did they take you?

Where did you go?

RUDI Don’t think of that, Ina

Think only of you Only what you must do to survive Stay alive, sweet Ina, just stay alive.

INA But how, Rudi? How? RUDI Remember the past Hold on to the hope That the present won’t last INA I don’t know how to do that, Rudi, But I’ll try, I’ll try.

You try too…

BOTH We’ll remember the past

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED Hold on to the hope That the present won’t last That’s what I’ll do for you Sweet Rudi/Ina We will survive

INA Right? Rudi? Right?

IMAGE | Photo of the artwork for Opera Colorado’s 2018 production of Steal a Pencil for Me

“To Know” From the opera As One Music by Laura Kaminsky, libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed

Joanne Evans, Turner Staton

As One is a chamber opera in which two voices, Hannah after (mezzo-soprano), and Hannah before (baritone), share the part of a sole transgender protagonist. Fifteen scenes comprise the three-part narrative; with empathy and humor, they trace Hannah’s experiences from her youth in a small town to her college years, and finally traveling alone to a different country, where she realizes some truths about herself. Since its American Opera Projects premiere in 2014, it has received over fifty new productions, making it one of the most widely produced contemporary operas in North America. In 2017, Opera Colorado included As One as part of SCENE CHANGE, a new venture that represented a fresh way to experience opera in unexpected places throughout Metro Denver. In the “To Know” scene, Hannah before searches for answers and finds them while visiting the Lewis and Clark Library. For the first time, she realizes she is not alone.

TEXT HANNAH AFTER Then I see her on T.V. There she is. She is.

And I hear the word. The real word.

The magic word. Finally a name for this.

That is me.

That is my word.

I repeat it over and over.

As soon as I can, I go to the library, The Lewis and Clark Library.

Named for explorers.

When the coast is clear I creep to the card catalog, Thumb through the cards, My hands trembling.

“Transatlantic Travel.”

Farther…

“Transfiguration, The.” Farther…

“Transylvania.”

Too far…

And there it is, The word The magic word.

Typed on a yellowing card.

Later, I grab a book with the magic word.

And hide it in another book, And slip to the darkest corner Of Lewis and Clark…

BOTH And I read And learn Read and learn.

There are others.

There are others.

To learn I’m not the only one.

The relief.

The power, the power.

Just to know. Just to know.

HANNAH AFTER I return to Lewis and Clark many times.

And hide new books in the same old one.

HANNAH BEFORE (To the world it might look like I’m becoming an expert on the TransVaal War.)

IMAGE | Photo of the artwork for Opera Colorado’s 2017 production of As One

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans, Dante Mireles

“I Remember” From the opera After Life Music by Tom Cipullo, libretto by David Mason

In February and March of 2019, Opera Colorado produced a double bill of one-act operas by Tom Cipullo at the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art. After Life imagines a post-mortem reunion of Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. The two towering figures discuss their lives, their complex relationship, and, in particular, their activities during the Second World War. Their outsize egos clash, resentment between them boils over, and, as they confront each other, a third voice rises from the darkness. In the “I Remember” scene, a young girl, a victim of the Holocaust, appears. Her questioning has brought Stein and Picasso back from the dead. Confused and wanting to know the reason her life ended, she asks why she died while they lived on? Who will remember her when she barely remembers herself?

TEXT PICASSO I changed...

STEIN I loved.

PICASSO You did nothing!

I painted.

STEIN I wrote, GIRL Why? Why did we?

STEIN Who is it now?

PICASSO Why do you care?

STEIN I don’t like being interrupted.

It’s impolite.

GIRL Why did we live only to...?

PICASSO Is this one of your conjurings As you imagine me?

STEIN No one I know.

PICASSO You pretend not to know.

A friend of yours?

STEIN Have we met?

GIRL Miss Stein, I remember.

Do you remember me?

STEIN A rose?

Why do I remember that?

A rose is a rose is a rose.

GIRL I sold you a rose on the roadside, Near the village of Izieu.

You came by in your car, With the lady, your friend.

STEIN My Alice, my Alice, my Alice.

GIRL She said you were famous.

A famous American writer.

You bought her a rose BOTH “A rose from a genius,” GIRL I remember you said.

STEIN A rose is a rose is

SET II: TIME REMEMBERED BOTH A rose.

PICASSO I was in Paris. So far away.

STEIN I’m sorry. I barely remember.

Tell me your name.

STEIN I couldn’t have known.

GIRL No one remembers my name.

I don’t remember myself.

PICASSO I had a friend who looked like you, Almost like a girl.

I painted him many times, many times.

My paintings were blue.

GIRL It wasn’t I. Why, why did I die?

STEIN I’m sorry, young lady.

I can’t have known why.

GIRL I was an orphan, just seventeen The day they came.

They took us in transports Far, far away.

I remember the weather that day.

April, with buds on trees.

But cold, still cold, a chill in the air.

PICASSO April in Paris. Somehow familiar…

PICASSO AND STEIN We tried to resist.

We made art.

Art is life.

These hands and these eyes, They made my art.

GIRL You were saved.

PICASSO AND STEIN Life!

After life.

Art is for life!

GIRL You were saved, and I died.

IMAGE | Photo of the artwork for Opera Colorado’s 2019 production of After Life

SET III: PASSAGE OF TIME “Time is change. We measure its passage by how much things alter.”

-NADINE GORDIMER

David Soto Zambrana

“In Time of Silver Rain” From the song cycle Silver Rain Music by Robert Owens, poem by Langston Hughes

“In Time of Silver Rain” is the first song of Robert Owens’s cycle Silver Rain, which is a setting of Langston Hughes’s poems for the tenor voice. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Owens used the G.I. Bill to pursue musical education in Europe. Owens returned to the United States in 1957 to teach music at Albany State College in Georgia. During this time, he began setting the poems of Langston Hughes to music. His music with Hughes’s poem “In Time of Silver Rain,” conjures the passage of seasons and of the arrival and glory of spring.

TEXT In time of silver rain The earth puts forth new life again, Green grasses grow And flowers lift their heads, And over all the plain The wonder spreads Of life!

In time of silver rain The butterflies Lift silken wings To catch a rainbow cry,

And trees put forth New leaves to sing In joy beneath the sky As down the roadway Passing boys and girls Go singing, too, In time of silver rain In time of silver rain When spring And life Are new.

IMAGE | Photo of Robert Owens and Langston Hughes from Art Song Alliance

“Laurie’s Aria” From the opera The Tender Land Music by Aaron Copland, libretto by Horace Everett

Francesca Mehrotra

Premiering on April 1, 1954 at the New York City Opera, The Tender Land tells the story of a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. Copland was inspired to write the opera after viewing the Depressionera photographs of Walker Evans and reading James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. He wrote the work between 1952 and 1954 for the NBC Television Opera Workshop, with the intention of its being presented on television. However, the television producers rejected the opera. One of the main characters is Laurie Moss. She is about to graduate from high school, the first in her family to do so. In her aria, Laurie

SET III: PASSAGE OF TIME thinks back to her childhood and ponders her graduation and her future. Copland’s setting is perhaps one of the most poignant illustrations in American opera on the passage of time.

TEXT Faster...slow up...faster...slow up Once I thought I’d never go Outside this fence.

This space was plenty for me.

But I walked down the road one day, And just what happened I can’t say.

But little by little it came to be That line between the earth and sky Came beckoning to me.

Now the time has grown short; The world has grown so wide.

I’ll be graduated soon.

Why am I strange inside?

What makes me think I’d like to try To go down all those roads beyond that line Above the earth and ‘neath the sky?

Tomorrow when I sit upon The graduation platform stand.

I know my hand will shake When I reach out to take that paper With the ribboned band.

Now that all the learning’s done, Oh who knows what will now begin?

Oh it’s so strange, I’m strange inside.

The time has grown so short, The world so wide.

IMAGE | Photo of an American farmhouse in the Great Depression era from Minnesota Historical Society

“Not A Day Goes By” From the musical Merrily We Roll Along Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Michael Leyte-Vidal

Merrily We Roll Along is an American musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It premiered on Broadway on November 16, 1981, in a production with a cast almost exclusively of teenagers and young adults. The show was not a success. After a chaotic series of preview performances, it opened to widely negative reviews and closed after fifty-two previews and sixteen performances. In the years since, the show has been extensively rewritten and has enjoyed several notable productions, including a London premiere in 2000 that won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The plot tells the story of how three friends’ lives and friendship change over twenty years. Like the play on which it is based, the show’s story moves backward in time. It begins in 1976 at the friends’ lowest moment and ends in 1957, at their youthful best. “Not A Day Goes By” comes at the end of act one and is sung by the character of Beth. However, this piece has gained a life outside of the musical and frequently appears on the cabaret circuit. It has been recorded by such notable artists as Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook, Patti LuPone, Barry Manilow, Audra McDonald, and Michael Crawford. Today, we add our own artistic voice to the mix.

TEXT Not a day goes by, Not a single day You’re not somewhere a part of my life And I need you to stay As the days go by, I keep thinking “When does it end?

That it can’t get much better much longer,” But it only gets Better and stronger And deeper and nearer And simpler and freer And richer and clearer, and no,

SET III: PASSAGE OF TIME Not a day goes by, Not a blessed day But you somewhere come Into my life And you don’t go away.

And I have to say, If you do, I’ll die.

I want day after day After day after day After day after day after day Till the days go by!

Till the days go by!

Till the days go by!

Till the days go by.

Not a day goes by, Not a single day But you’re somewhere a part of my life And it looks like you’ll stay.

As the days go by, I keep thinking, “When does it end?

Where ‘s the day I’ll have started Forgetting?”

But I just go on Thinking and sweating And cursing and crying And turning and reaching And waking and dying And no, Not a day goes by, Not a blessed day But you’re still somehow part of my life And you won’t go away.

So there’s hell to pay, And until I die, I’ll die day after day After day after day After day after day After day Till the days go by!

Till the days go by!

Till the days go by.

“On And On And On” From the theatrical song cycle We Aren’t Kids Anymore Music and lyrics by Drew Gasparini

Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans

Drew Gasparini is an award-winning composer, lyricist, and singer/songwriter. In 2019, Drew wrote the score for the highly publicized Super Bowl advertising stunt, Skittles Commercial: The Musical starring Michael C. Hall. The show went on to win several advertising awards and was voted #1 Best Super Bowl Ad of 2019 by Forbes. Drew’s new theatrical song cycle explores the collision of artistic expression and the realities of growing up. The cycle was born of Drew’s journey forging a creative path and navigating the world at large, and his desire to offer empathy and hope to everyone doing the same. In the duet “On And On And On,” two women look back on their paths and the changes they’ve experienced. The simple but evocative lyrics are paired with music that is reminiscent of a carnival ride. The effect brilliantly captures lives caught up in the endless cycle of time.

TEXT BONNIE It’s depressing to think How courageous I was Not too long ago It’s impressive to think I was never afraid to go out on a limb But what did I know?

I had high hopes And I had low pressure I had no fear Life was designed messily, stresses would Roll off my back And so On and on and on and on I’d go

LILI It’s amazing to me How I got this far Without knowing a thing It’s amazing to see The things that I have Were once in a place that seemed So out of reach I had high goals And I had low income I had no doubts Life was designed sloppily, stopping was Never a thought And so On and on and on and on I’d go

SET III: PASSAGE OF TIME BOTH I used to have eyes That would light up with wonder I shout to the skies I had a roar louder than thunder

BOTH There’s still more to do

BONNIE And now it’s just noise

BOTH And no worries Because I know Life flies by in a hurry If we don’t slow down To live BONNIE Still on and on

LILI And praying for buzz BOTH And missing the person I was BONNIE It’s distressing to think I’ve lost what it takes To become something new LILI It’s a blessing to think I’ve still more to give Believe it or not,

LILI I have high hopes

LILI And on and on BOTH We go

SET IV: TIMES OF LOVE AND LOSS “Time flies over us but leaves its shadow behind.”

-NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Joanne Evans, Turner Staton

“All the Wasted Time” From the musical Parade Music and libretto by Jason Robert Brown

Jason Robert Brown’s musical Parade dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan.

The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the state of Georgia.

When his death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departing Governor of Georgia, John M. Slaton, in 1915 due to his detailed review of over 10,000 pages of testimony and possible problems with the trial, Leo Frank was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. He was taken to the Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, where he was hanged from an oak tree. Underneath the main storyline is the evolving relationship between Leo and his wife Lucille.

The poignancy of the couple, who fall in love in the midst of adversity, makes the tragic outcome, the miscarriage of justice, even more disturbing.

TEXT LEO I will never understand What I did to deserve you, Or how to be the man That I’m supposed to be.

I will never understand If I live a thousand lifetimes Why you did the things you did for me.

Just look at you How could I not be in love with you?

What kind of fool could have taken you For granted for so long?

All the wasted time, All the million hours, Pushing you away, Building up my wall.

All the days gone by To glare, to pout, to push you out, And I never knew anything at all.

I never knew anything at all...

LUCILLE I will never understand

How all the world misjudged you When I have always known How lucky I must be.

I will never understand How I kept from goin’ crazy Just waitin’ there till you came home to me.

Now look at me, Now that you’re finally here with me, Now that I know I was right to wait, And everyone else was so wrong For so long!

All the wasted time, LEO All the wasted time...

LUCILLE All the million hours, Years on top of years, Still too proud to crawl, All the days gone by To feel that I don’t satisfy And I never knew anything at all.

SET IV: TIMES OF LOVE AND LOSS I never knew anything at all!

LEO All the wasted time, LUCILLE All the wasted time, LEO All the million hours,

BOTH Leaves too high to touch, Roots too strong to fall!

All the days gone by To never show I loved you so, And I never knew anything at all!

LEO I never knew anything At all!

“Time Does Not Bring Relief” Art Song Music by Julia Meinwald, poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Francesca Mehrotra

Julia Meinwald is a New York City based American composer who likes writing for musical theatre (and the occasional film and computer game score) and eating kimchi. She and her collaborator Gordon Leary write aggressively empathetic shows that help them understand completely foreign points of view, like Anita Bryant’s Save-Our-Children crusade, online fan communities that formed around high school shooters, and groups of teenage girls who decide to get pregnant together. She is most known for her musicals: Pregnancy Pact, REB + VoDKa + ME, The Magnificent Seven, The Loneliest Girl in The World, and Elevator Heart. Julia’s work has been produced at the Weston Playhouse and Diversionary Theatre and developed through groups like Ars Nova and the Dramatists Guild. Meinwald’s direct and fearless approach to music is paired with Millay’s heart-wrenching text in the Art Song “Time Does Not Bring Relief.” The piece stands in stark contrast and defiance of the old adage that “time heals all wounds.”

TEXT Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him at the shrinking of the tide; The old snows melt from every mountain-side, And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane; But last year’s bitter loving must remain Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.

There are a hundred places where I fear To go,—so with his memory they brim.

And entering with relief some quiet place Where never fell his foot or shone his face I say, “There is no memory of him here!”

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

IMAGE | Photo of Edna St. Vincent Millay from the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society

SET IV: TIMES OF LOVE AND LOSS “If I Have To Live Alone” From the musical The Baker’s Wife Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Michael Leyte-Vidal

Based on the novel Jean-le-bleu and the play La femme du boulanger by Jean Giono and the film by Marcel Pagnol, The Baker’s Wife is perhaps Stephen Schwartz’s most under-recognized musical. The plot involves a baker who, after finding that a handsome chauffeur is driving his wife crazy, refuses to supply the town with any more bread until she comes to her senses and returns to him. Beginning with a “Chanson,” first in French, then in English, the musical is unusual, quirky, at times sophisticated, and at others, unerringly simple. In the middle of act two, the baker, whose name is Aimable, decides that if he has to live alone, he will do so with dignity. The lyrics convey honesty, acceptance, and inner strength. However, when paired with the music, we see beyond the words and understand the pain and loneliness that are left when an unexpected love is lost.

TEXT The house seems smaller Since she’s been gone.

The lights stay dim and the shutters drawn.

But the clock keeps running, And time runs on, And there’s time enough has flown If I have to live alone.

The leaves still rustle, the wind still whines; The sun shines colder, but still it shines.

I do my living between the lines Like the silent times I’ve known When I had to live alone.

Before I knew her I had my ways To fill the hours, to kill the days.

Have a meal at the cafe Ev’ry night at ten; Take a walk, take a nap, perhaps A card game now and then.

I’ve lived alone before and I can do it again.

I still hear laughter, I still see stars, and if It’s true that a smile comes hard, Well, that’s the reason that God made scars: To protect us once they’ve grown.

Let them harden now like stone.

Let them harden now like stone If I have to live alone.

SET V: MOMENTS IN TIME “You know there are moments such as these when time stands still and all you do is hold your breath and hope it will wait for you.”

-DOROTHEA LANGE

“The Feast of Crispian” From the song cycle We Happy Few Music by Richard Cumming, text by William Shakespeare

Turner Staton

American composer Richard Cumming was actually born in Shanghai and spent some of his childhood in the Philippines before returning to the U.S. and settling in San Francisco during World War II. For all his High Modernist training, he was at heart a son of the tradition that produced Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, and other composers who clung to tonality, lyricism, and wit through much of the dissonant and difficult twentieth century, and who often sought inspiration outside the realm of the concert hall. He admired the best of Gershwin, Porter, and Kern as much as Beethoven and Brahms. His path led him to the theater, where he found and fell in love with the language of William Shakespeare. His song cycle, We Happy Few, was originally composed in 1969. When it was reissued on CD in 1999, it was hailed “a modern classic” by the Washington Post. The art song, “The Feast of Crispian” features text from Shakespeare’s Henry V. It captures the moment the famous St. Crispin’s Day speech is delivered by King Henry V on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt. Henry has spent the night wandering among his men, hearing of their fears, determination, and loyalty. Deeply moved, Henry urges his men, who are vastly outnumbered by the French, to imagine the glory and immortality that will be theirs as they stand together on the battlefield as a “band of brothers.”

TEXT This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.

He that outlives this day, And comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”

Then will he strip his sleeve And show his scars, and say, “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember What feats he did that day.

IMAGE | Photo of Agincourt memorial from BBC News

This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, But we in it shall be remembered, We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d They were not here, and hold their Manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

SET V: MOMENTS IN TIME “The Fifth of November” From the song cycle Month Upon A Time Music and lyrics by Jeff Blumenkrantz

Michael Leyte-Vidal

From Jeff Blumenkrantz: “I wrote a new song cycle consisting of twelve songs, each dealing in some way with one month of the year, starting June 2011 through May 2012, inspired by ideas from my Twitter followers. In advance of the first of the month, I fielded ideas via Twitter for that month’s song, then I chose one idea and wrote and published the song in that month. Why did I do this? I was curious to hear people’s stories and ideas. I was excited to write some new songs. I was ready to create regularly again.

(And I’d been meaning to figure out how to use that Twitter thing for a while.)” The piece for the month of November was inspired by an idea from Alexandra Silber. It is an account of a young man’s memories as he and his family moved from the United States to Great Britain and his life collided with Guy Fawkes Day in unimaginable ways. Its appearance in today’s American Song program will mark the first time this piece has even been performed publicly.

TEXT “Remember, remember The fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot, I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, T’was his intent to blow up the King and the Parliament.

Three score barrels of power below, Poor old England to overthrow…”

We didn’t know it was a holiday, The day we moved from Atlanta To the far away U.K. But from the airplane, We saw fireworks all around And counted twenty-seven bonfires Before we hit the ground.

We all raised hell When we were told we had to go, But when my father put his foot down, There was just no saying no.

So he let himself be transferred to get ahead And sacrificed His family’s happiness instead.

I’ll always remember the fifth of November, Betrayal was hanging in the air.

All these bonfires to remind us Of some guy’s treachery And my father who didn’t seem to care That we all wanted to be Anywhere but there.

The year that followed was particularly bad For the first Latin family The school had ever had.

The local kids were either snotty Or downright mean.

My only friend in England

Was a Pac-Man machine.

That next November the fifth, My parents thought we all should see Our borough’s fireworks display And the Guy Fawkes effigy, I said, “You go ahead, But I’m gonna split.

You can’t make me party with people Who keep treating me like shit.”

I’ll always remember that fifth of November, Coming home from the video arcade To see my parents and my sisters Standing by, While the members of the fire brigade Just sprayed and sprayed and sprayed.

They never caught the culprits, But they complied a list of names.

They thought it might have been The same kids That set that house on New Cross in flames.

Well, it was more than even My stubborn father could take, And were back in Atlanta Before Christmas break.

It was almost like we never left at all.

And no one talked about the fire That happened that fall.

Now November fifth comes and goes Like any other day.

No more bonfires or effigies Or fireworks display.

But I still have a vivid memory of that day And a secret act of treachery.

“Remember, remember The fifth of November.

Gunpower, treason and plot, I see no reason why gunpowder treason

SET V: MOMENTS IN TIME should ever be forgot.”

Guy Fawkes got hung for this treachery, But here’s the funny catch.

All he did was guard some powder, Whereas I actually lit the match…

IMAGE | Photo of a Guy Fawkes celebration and photo of the house fire described in this song from History.com

Joanne Evans

“Moments in the Woods” From the musical Into The Woods Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Into the Woods is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine.

The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. In Sondheim’s gifted hands, fairy tales are turned on their heads, and the concept of “happily ever after” goes awry. The musical premiered on Broadway on November 5, 1987, where it won three major Tony Awards (Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical for Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera. It has since been produced many times, with a 1988 US national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1997 tenth anniversary concert, a 2002 Broadway revival, a 2010 London revival, a film version in 2014, and the newest Broadway revival in 2022. In “Moments in the Woods,” the character of The Baker’s Wife has just experienced a passionate but unexpected rendezvous with one of the Princes Charming. After he kisses her, he abruptly leaves.

Confused, she wonders about the moments that make up a life. It’s Sondheim at his finest. Playful yet serious, sarcastic yet sincere.

TEXT What was that?

Was that me?

Was that him?

Did a prince really kiss me?

And kiss me?

And kiss me?

And did I kiss him back?

Was it wrong?

Am I mad?

Is that all?

Does he miss me?

Was he suddenly getting bored with me?

Wake up! Stop dreaming.

Stop prancing about the woods.

It’s not beseeming.

What is it about the woods?

Back to life, back to sense Back to child, back to husband No one lives in the woods.

There are vows, there are ties, There are needs, there are standards, There are shouldn’ts and shoulds.

Why not both instead?

There’s the answer if you’re clever: Have a child for warmth, And a baker for bread, And a prince for whatever...

Never!

It’s these woods.

Face the facts, find the boy, Join the group, stop the giant, Just get out of these woods.

Was that him? Yes, it was.

Was that me? No, it wasn’t, Just a trick of the woods.

Just a moment, One peculiar passing moment.

Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand?

Is it always “Or”?

Is it never “And”?

That’s what woods are for: For those moments in the woods...

Oh, if life were made of moments, Even now and then a bad one!

But if life were only moments,

SET V: MOMENTS IN TIME Then you’d never know you had one.

First a witch, then a child, Then a prince, then a moment, Who can live in the woods?

And to get what you wish, Only just for a moment, These are dangerous woods.

Let the moment go, Don’t forget it for a moment, though.

Just remembering you’ve had an “And” When you’re back to “Or” Makes the “Or” mean more Than it did before.

Now I understand...

And it’s time to leave the woods!

IMAGE | Photo of original concept art for Into the Woods from Walt Disney Imagineering

“That Moment On” From the song cycle Pieces of 9/11: Memories from Houston Music by Jake Heggie, lyrics by Gene Scheer

Dante Mireles

Based on interviews with Houstonians who generously shared their stories about the 9/11 attacks, Pieces of 9/11: Memories from Houston is a thirty-five-minute song cycle commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. Heggie says, “The whole reason it’s called Pieces of 9/11 is that all we really have of that experience are pieces of memories or emotions or journeys, and collectively they’re all pieces that we’re trying to put together in a puzzle to try to understand what that event meant. The big challenge was, we know that this was a tragic story that was deeply shattering and the shock waves were felt all over the world. But the job, our job, I felt, was to find something hopeful and positive we could take away from that horrible experience so it could make our lives better.” “That Moment On” tells the story of a Houston firefighter who was on one of the crews working the site of the World Trade Center in New York City after the Twin Towers fell.

TEXT Underneath my bed I have a box, The kind a woman keeps Her wedding dress in, Mine is filled with mem’ries of those lost In the sand dunes of dust From the pile where The Twin Towers had been.

A, a rosary, A torn picture of a, a family, A scrap of paper from someone unknown.

A, a trinket from a desk Buried in concrete dust Shattered glass and bone.

And ev’rything belonged to somebody, To somebody gone.

And we all belonged to each other From that moment on.

That moment on.

Like Pixy Stix dropped down upon The face of the moon, Steel I-beams here and there Were raised up by the cranes.

IMAGE | Photos from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

And as each was lifted from the ash From the sand dunes of dust I dug deeper and thought, “This is what remains?”

Then I called my wife And children on the phone, Could barely speak except to say, “How ya doin’?”

And I thought of those now all alone Looked around in the dust And began to pick up pieces from the ruin.

A, a rosary, A torn picture of a, a family, A scrap of paper from someone unknown.

A, a trinket from a desk Buried in concrete dust Shattered glass and bone.

And ev’rything belonged to somebody, To somebody gone.

And we all belonged to each other From that moment on.

That moment on.

SET VI: TIME TO LAUGH “A good time to laugh is any time you can.”

-LINDA ELLERBEE

“Toothbrush Time” From Cabaret Songs Music by William Bolcom, lyrics by Arnold Weinstein

Joanne Evans

National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award winner William Bolcom is an American composer of chamber, operatic, vocal, choral, cabaret, ragtime, and symphonic music. His Cabaret Songs, featuring the lyrics of American poet, playwright, and librettist Arnold Weinstein, are among some of his best-known works. The comedic “Toothbrush Time” follows a woman in an on-again, off-again relationship.

On this current morning, she bemoans having her space invaded by her overnight guest.

TEXT It’s toothbrush time, Ten a.m. again and toothbrush time.

Last night at half past nine it seemed okay.

But in the light of day not so fine at Toothbrush time.

Now he’s crashing round my bathroom.

Now he’s reading my degree, Perusing all my pills, Reviewing all my ills, And he comes out smelling like me.

Now he advances on my kitchen, Now he raids every shelf Till from the pots and pans And puddles and debris Emerges three eggs all for himself.

Oh, how I’d be ahead if I’d stood out of bed; I wouldn’t sit here grieving, Waiting for the wonderful moment

“Airport Song” From the musical Honeymoon in Vegas Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Of his leaving At toothbrush time, toothbrush time, Ten a.m. again and toothbrush time.

I know it’s sad to be alone It’s so bad to be alone, Still I should’ve known That I’d be glad to be alone.

I should’ve known, I should’ve known!

Never should have picked up the phone And called him.

“Hey, uh, listen, uhm, uh, I’ve got to - Oh, you gotta go too?

So glad you understand. And...”

By the way, did you say Nine tonight again?

See you then.

Toothbrush time!

Francesca Mehrotra, Joanne Evans, David Soto Zambrana, Turner Staton

Based on the hit 1992 film, the musical Honeymoon in Vegas centers on an unusual love triangle and features a score by Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown. Mild-mannered Brooklynite, Jack, promised his dying mother that he would never get married, but that was before he met his girlfriend, Betsy. Haunted by a fear of his mother’s retribution, Jack avoids proposing but, when he finally summons

SET VI: TIME TO LAUGH the courage to whisk Betsy off to Las Vegas to get married, a dashing gambler named Tommy threatens their happiness. In a rash bet with Jack, Tommy sweeps Betsy away to a life of luxury in Hawaii. Realizing what he’s about to lose, Jack is determined to reach Betsy and win her back at all costs. That’s if he can get to her on time.

TEXT JACK When can I get the next direct flight to Vegas?

AGENT SALTZBERG Next Thursday.

JACK Next Thursday! Are you insane?

AGENT SALTZBERG Not to worry sir! We can get you there!

JACK You can?

AGENT SALTZBERG We can put you on the 9:15 to Honolulu Then to...Atlanta.

Then on to Vegas For Wednesday morning Eight thousand bucks.

JACK Are you insane? I can’t afford that!

AGENT HARGROVE Or we could put you on the 10:35 to Honolulu Then to...

BOTH Atlanta!

JACK I don’t want to go to Atlanta!

AGENT HARGROVE Then on to Vegas Through Cincinnati...

AGENTS Or we could put you on the Midnight flight...

That sends you Through the night AGENT MURPHY To...Atlanta AGENT SALTZBERG Then you’ll have chili up in Philly AGENT MURPHY And kielbasa in St. Paul!

ALL AGENTS Oh, St. Paul AGENT HARGROVE Or we could put you on the 8 AM That goes direct...

JACK Yes? AGENT HARGROVE To Fairbanks, Alaska.

And once you get to Fairbanks, ALL AGENTS You not going anywhere at all!

JACK So I have no chance.

AGENT SALTZBERG When do you need to get there?

JACK Tonight.

AGENT SALTZBERG Whoops! All sold out!

AGENT SALTZBERG Then you have no chance.

JACK I just need to get to Vegas As quickly and directly…

ALL AGENTS Have a nice day!

SET VI: TIME TO LAUGH “Getting Married Today” From the musical Company Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Opera Colorado Artists in Residence

Company is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards, winning six. Company is written in a style without a chronological linear path. Its story depicts the internal observations of its lead character, Robert, or “Bobby,” and is composed of short vignettes linked by his thirty-fifth birthday. The musical was among the first to deal with contemporary dating, marriage, and divorce. “Getting Married Today” is a patter song from the musical, sung by the manic Amy, as the thought of marriage sends her into a panic on the day of her wedding. It is often incorrectly referred to as “Not Getting Married Today.”

The song has been described as one of the most difficult songs to perform in musical theatre, with one verse containing sixty-eight words to be sung in roughly eleven seconds; it depends on clear diction, implicit pitch accuracy, and breath support, alongside precise comedic timing.

TEXT JENNY Bless this day, pinnacle of life, Husband joined to wife.

The heart leaps up to behold this golden day.

PAUL Today is for Amy, Amy, I give you the rest of my life.

To cherish and to keep you, To honor you forever, Today is for Amy, My happily soon-to-be wife AMY Pardon me, is everybody there?

Because if everybody’s there I want to thank you all For coming to the wedding.

I’d appreciate your going even more, I mean, You must have lots of better things to do And not a word of it to Paul.

Remember Paul?

You know, the man I’m gonna marry, But I’m not because I wouldn’t ruin Anyone as wonderful as he is; Thank you all For the gifts and the flowers.

But I thank you all, Now it’s back to the showers.

Don’t tell Paul, But I’m not getting married today.

JENNY Bless this day, tragedy of life, Husband joined to wife.

The heart sinks down and feels dead This dreadful day.

AMY Listen, everybody Look, I don’t know what you’re waiting for— A wedding? What's a wedding?

It’s a prehistoric ritual Where everybody promises fidelity forever Which is maybe The most horrifying word I ever heard, And which is followed by a honeymoon Where suddenly he’ll realize He’s saddled with a nut And want to kill me, which he should So listen, thanks a bunch But I’m not getting married, Go have lunch, ‘Cause I’m not getting married, You’ve been grand, But I’m not getting married, Don’t just stand there, I’m not getting married, And don’t tell Paul, But I’m not getting married today!

Go! Can’t you go?

Why is nobody listening? Goodbye!

Go and cry at another person’s wake.

If you’re quick, for a kick, You could pick up a christening, But please, on my knees, There’s a human life at stake.

Listen, everybody, I’m afraid you didn’t hear, Or do you want to see a crazy lady Fall apart in front of you?

It isn’t only Paul

SET VI: TIME TO LAUGH Who may be ruining his life, you know, We’ll both of us be losing our identities— I telephoned my analyst about it And he said to see him Monday, But by Monday I’ll be floating In the Hudson with the other garbage.

I’m not well, So I’m not getting married.

You’ve been swell, But I’m not getting married.

Clear the hall ‘Cause I’m not getting married.

Thank you all, But I’m not getting married, And don’t tell Paul, But I’m not getting married today.

Twenty-seven dinner plates and Thirty-seven butter knives and Forty-seven paperweights and Fifty-seven candle holders...

JENNY Bless this bride, totally insane, Slipping down the drain, And bless this day in our hearts, As it starts to rain,

AMY But I’m not getting married!

PAUL Today is for Amy, Amy, I give you the rest of my life, To cherish and to keep you, To honor you forever, Today is for Amy, My happily soon-to-be wife.

My adorable wife.

PAUL With this ring

AMY Go! Can’t you go?

Look, you know I adore you all, But why watch me die Like Eliza on the ice?

Look, perhaps I’ll collapse In the apse right before you all, So take back the cake, Burn the shoes and boil the rice.

Look, I didn’t want to have to tell you, But I may be coming down with hepatitis And I think I’m gonna faint, So if you wanna see me faint, I’ll do it happily, But wouldn’t it be funnier To go and watch a funeral?

So thank you for the

PAUL I thee wed.

IMAGE | Photo of a church alter decorated for wedding

PAUL One more thing— AMY I am not getting married...

JENNY & GUESTS Amen PAUL Softly said:

JENNY & GUESTS Amen.

AMY See, I’m not getting married...

JENNY & GUESTS Amen.

AMY See, I'm not getting married JENNY & GUESTS Amen.

PAUL/AMY Let us pray And we are/That we’re not Getting married today!

JENNY & GUESTS Amen!

OPERA COLORADO AND THE NEWMAN CENTER PRESENT

MICHELLE DEYOUNG MARCH 30 | 7:30 P.M.

Join multi-Grammy award winning artist Michelle DeYoung for a vocal recital with pianist Cody Guy Garrison, featuring a wide-ranging repertoire, including the songs of Erich Korngold.

GET TICKETS

SPECIAL THANKS

AMERICAN SONG: TIME

Sponsored by Pamela Beardsley and Carol Whitley

2022-23 Opera Colorado Artist in Residence Program Sponsored by Ken & Donna Barrow,

with additional support from Patrick Spieles and Dr. Stephen L. Dilts

Francesca Mehrotra | Soprano

Sponsored by Ken & Barbara Laff and Laurence & Cynthia Chan

Joanne Evans | Mezzo-Soprano Sponsored by Joy & Chris Dinsdale

David Soto Zambrana | Tenor

Sponsored by Jason and Nathaly Ambos

Dante Mireles | Baritone

Sponsored by Robin & Eric Yaeger

Michael Leyte-Vidal | Bass-Baritone

Sponsored by Joyce de Roos and Donald K. Braden

Turner Staton | Bass-Baritone Sponsored by Gayle & Gary Landis

Oleg Bellini | Pianist

Sponsored by David & Elizabeth Budd and Suzanne D. Bucy

Nathan Salazar | Principal Repertoire Coach Daniel Belcher | Voice Teacher

STAFF LEADERSHIP Greg Carpenter

The Ellie Caulkins General & Artistic Director

Ari Pelto

Music Director

SENIOR TEAM Jennifer Colgan

Director of Marketing & Communications

Tom Kirkpatrick

Chief Financial Officer

Cherity Koepke

Director of Education & Community Engagement, Director of the Artist in Residence Program

Jordanna Rose

Director of Artistic Operations

Erin Wenzel

Director of Development

STAFF Anthony Berkley

Business Operations & Development Manager

Sandy Bucceri, SHRM-CP

Human Resources Manager

Samantha Cantu

Patron Services Manager

Angelica DiIorio

Marketing Manager, Advertising & Content

Megan Immerfall

Bookkeeper

Ben Karasik

Production Manager

Robin Lander

Patron Services & Office Coordinator

Madeleine Snow

Individual Giving & Donor Events Manager

Bethany Wood, PhD

Manager of Education & Community Engagement

LEARN MORE

If you enjoyed today’s performance, consider joining us for more!

KORNGOLD’S DIE TOTE STADT at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House February 25 | 28 | March 3 | 5 PUCCINI’S TURANDOT at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House May 6 | 9 | 12 | 14 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON GALA at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and the Seawell Ballroom May 13