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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Sat Dec 8, 2001  6:05 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Competition art song

Karen Mercedes wrote:

I'm wondering if I'd be okay using "I was the plaything of
the gods",
> Medea's aria from THE BLUE OPERA by Nancy Binns-Reed. Opera America
> magazine listed the opera on its list of 50 American Operas that Should be
> Revived. And I did sing the role of Medea in the world premiere, so it
> really is "my" aria in a way.
>
> So what think ye all? Does a Contemporary Opera competition deserve to
> hear what may be the only revival ever of that particular aria? Does that
> Opera America encomium "validate" the work?

Your guess is as good as ours. Who are the judges? If Joe
McClellan is one, you could go with Blue Opera, because as I
recall he reviewed it and liked you in it! If it's the
usual sort of adjudicators who do other competitions, they
may be suspicious of a singer programming an aria (and an
opera) they've never heard of. But since virtually nothing
is written for contralto anymore, you may have to go with
it.

Too bad The Consul is pre-1958. I wonder if Madame
Euterpova's aria in Menotti's Help Help the Globolinks
(pretty sure it was written in the sixties) would work for
your voice. It's sort of dramatic soprano, but it seems to
me have similarities to the mother in Hansel and Gretel. (I
have the piano-vocal score if you want to borrow it). Of
course if you have an "I hate Menotti" judge (so idiotic for
adjudicators to have such musical prejudices), that won't
work. Karen, is there anything in The Crucible that would
work for your voice?

There might be something in Adamo's "Little Women" (I just
saw, but didn't buy, the CD at Borders).

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...



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