BARITONE ARIAS
THE HALLOWEEN TREE
Composer: Theo Popov
Librettist: Tony Asaro
Based on the novel “The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury
SYNOPSIS
In a small American town, a group of adolescents — Tom, J.J., Kelly, Lynn, and Lynn’s younger brother Lenny — set out in costume for a grisly and gripping Halloween night of trick-or-treating and macabre mayhem. But one of their friends is missing: Pipkin, the greatest boy who ever lived. They find him at his house, ill and unable to join them now but eager to meet up later at the haunted house far down along the ravine.
The House of Haunts is frightening and otherworldly, complete with a tree full of singing jack-o-lanterns, and an equally otherworldly host: Mr. Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, who likes to choose tricks over treats. Moundshroud informs the children that Pipkin is in grave danger; that they have until midnight to save him. They must go on a journey through time and space, visiting distant lands in ancient times, overcoming obstacles, warding off danger, and gathering talismans.
Through their journey, Tom and the other children encounter the various cultural traditions and rituals around death that make up our modern Halloween tradition and in turn learn about human mortality.
GONE
Aria for baritone
The children have been whisked off to medieval France by Moundshroud. A coven of witches has descended upon them and captures everyone except Tom, who narrowly escapes into the forest. Tom attempts to call Mr. Moundshroud to no avail; he has not procured the broom--the magic talisman required to summon Moundshroud. Alone and afraid, Tom grapples with his powerlessness, recalling his grief for his deceased father.
THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING
Composer: Justine F. Chen
Librettist: David Simpatico
SYNOPSIS
The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing is a two-act opera inspired by the life of the groundbreaking computer scientist, Alan Turing. Iconoclastic thinker and peerless visionary, he was a product of the Edwardian Age and the progenitor of the Cyber Age. He was also an openly gay man who created the first universal computer, initiated the field of Artificial Intelligence and launched the digital age. After saving England in World War II by breaking the impenetrable Nazi Enigma code, Turing was found guilty of gross indecency for a homosexual relationship. His punishment: chemical castration. Two years later, he was discovered poisoned, near a cyanide-laced apple with a bite taken from it. Turing’s mysterious death was labeled a suicide – but there are other theories. This two-hour opera is a historic-fantasia on his life.
WHY HAVE BODIES
Aria for baritone
Alan Turing, 17, mourns the sudden death of his best friend, and first love, Christopher Morcom, who died of tuberculosis at 18.
ENIGMA SEDUCTION
Aria for baritone
Alan Turing, 30, leads the efforts to break the Nazi Enigma Code, which had England on the edge of defeat. Alan is enticed by the challenge of the Enigma Code, but vows to defeat it, and Germany.
THE LONG WALK
Composer: Jeremy Howard Beck
Librettist: Stephanie Fleischmann
Based on the memoir by Brian Castner
SYNOPSIS
Act 1
A figure runs along the Niagara river in Buffalo, New York. This is Brian Castner, a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal Captain. As he runs, he is haunted by images of Iraq. Brian’s wife, Jessie, sings of her grandmother’s prophecy: even if her husband returns from combat, the war will no doubt kill him at home. At dinner with his family, Brian is besieged by a memory of Iraq: Soldiers invade the Castner family kitchen. Brian’s son, Martin, asks his father to read him a bedtime story. Later that night, Brian wakes in terror, overcome by physical symptoms. Jessie urges him to get help. The next morning, Brian struggles to get the kids ready for school. Longing to escape the challenges of the everyday, Brian flashes back to the joy of Explosive Ordnance (EOD) training prior to Iraq, and the brotherhood he found there, “the Brotherhood of the Crab.” That afternoon, at his son’s 7th birthday party, Jessie urges Brian to try to be present for the sake of the children. Brian struggles to connect with what’s happening all around him, and to remember minute details of his family’s past, and fails. He retreats to the garage, where he attempts to outfit the family minivan with a pistol, to keep his boys safe on their way to school. His son, Martin, finds him there. Brian takes off, attempting to outrun “the Crazy,” falling headlong into a barrage of memories of Iraq, culminating in the moment he came close to shooting a cluster of keening Iraqi women. The memories fall away. He finds himself back at home, staring into the mirror, before he mounts the stairs, where he sits, rifle in hands, guarding his sleeping boys.
Act 2
Jessie appeals to Brian, giving him an ultimatum of sorts. Brian descends into another memory of Iraq—the day he found a foot in a box and resolved to go home. Brian visits a shrink at the VA, who gives him a diagnosis. At a funeral of a fallen EOD man, Jessie mourns the loss of the man she married. Back at home, the boys sing about their father as the Shrink asks: Why is the war still in your house? At a yoga class for veterans, Brian, accosted by yet another memory, manages to remain in the present. Some time later, Jessie and the boys are playing before Brian’s return from a trip. He panics at the airport and calls Jessie, who talks him down. Brian asks her to relate details of the family life he’s forgotten. They connect over their shared past. The Shrink tells Brian he’s making progress. Brian accompanies his son to the Mite Hockey championship. Seeing his son suiting up, he breaks down, equating this gesture with that of one of his “brothers” suiting up to take the Long Walk. A flashback: The men in their humvee returning from a mission before dawn. A pigeon lands on the humvee. A breath. Back in Buffalo, Brian runs along the Niagara river, through memories of war and present moments of peace, past his EOD brothers, towards his wife and children, and on, into the future.
THERE ARE TWO OF ME NOW
Aria for baritone
Besieged by memories of his time in Iraq, Brian Castner, who is suffering from blast-induced traumatic brain injury, finds himself sitting at the top of the stairs in the Castner family home, with a gun in his hands, guarding his sleeping children. He confronts himself in the mirror.
BURIED ALIVE
Composer: Jeff Myers
Librettist: Quincy Long
SYNOPSIS
Can a man frighten himself to death?
Buried Alive, a one-act opera inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Premature Burial, concerns Victor, a successful painter, who comes to believe that he is slowly but surely being buried alive.
Victor is awakened in the middle of the night by a voice calling him to begin a painting, a painting of death, a painting so compelling it draws Victor deep into itself and onto a slab in the morgue.
Of course this is only a nightmare. Victor wakes up screaming in the arms of his wife, Elena, who reassures him that he is the victim of some kind of morbid obsession. She encourages him to get back to work— to paint this demon out of his soul, turning his fears to triumph as he has done so many times before.
But when Victor returns to his work, he suddenly finds himself in a funeral home being embalmed. Again Victor wakes up screaming, but this time in an emergency room after having attempted suicide by ingesting his paints. The doctor warns Victor that a mind turned against itself is capable of creating the very thing it most fears.
But Victor sees this ‘doctor’ as death incarnate, out to poison him. Elena agrees to have Victor sedated for his own safety. Under the influence of the sedative Victor accepts his death and lies down in a coffin. The coffin is lowered into the earth.
As the Gravedigger shovels dirt into the grave, thumps and screams of terror issue from the coffin indicating that Victor is still very much alive... until the screams eventually subside. Victor is, at last, dead.
O death
Aria for baritone
At the end of his long ordeal, Victor wakes up in a hospital emergency room believing that the doctors there are trying to kill him. Over Victor’s strenuous objections, his wife gives the doctors permission to restrain Victor and inject him with a sedative. Under its influence Victor imagines being led to his grave and sings of his final acceptance of death.