MEZZO SOPRANO ARIAS

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.

MY GRANDMOTHER SAID…
Aria for mezzo soprano

Jessie Castner’s husband, Brian, has come home from Iraq, seemingly in one piece. But he is not the man she married. He spends his days running along the Niagara River, attempting to outrun the images of war plaguing him. Jessie tries to make sense of Brian’s struggle, and how it is affecting her family, by remembering the prophecy her grandmother bestowed on her before Brian left.

AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS
Aria for mezzo soprano

Jessie Castner comes upon her husband Brian, sitting at the top of the stairs with a gun in hands, guarding their sleeping children from the terrors besieging him. She sings this aria in response to the state in which she finds him.

LA REINA
Composer: Jorge Sosa
Librettists: Jorge Sosa and Laura Sosa Pedroza

SYNOPSIS

Regina, a character inspired by Sandra Ávila Beltrán known as “The Queen of the Pacific,” prays in an American prison cell, asking the patron saint of drug dealers, to protect her. Suddenly, the shrine comes to life. La Santa Muerte guides Regina on a journey through her past, forcing her to relive the tragic sequences of death and treason that led to her crowning as the queen of organized crime, and ultimately, her downfall and imprisonment.

ARIA A LA SANTA MUERTE
Aria for mezzo soprano (in Spanish)

Regina, the leader of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico, is being held in a maximum-security prison in the United States where she is waiting to be executed. Alone in her cell, she prays to the image of La Santa Muerte (the skeleton saint of death). She asks La Santa Muerte to let her die with dignity and not be executed by a corrupt and hypocritical system. She is not the only one to blame for her crimes: she has seen the world of drug trafficking from the inside, she has sat with the corrupt politicians and seen how governments turn a blind eye. They are all to blame. Now that she has been defeated, all she asks from La Santa Muerte is to die in peace.

SE ESCUCHA LA DETONACIÓN
Aria for mezzo soprano (in Spanish)

Regina remembers the first time she took a life. It was El Jefe de Sicarios who helped El Pozolero rape her on her wedding night. Now, El Jefe de Sicarios is before her and she holds his life in her hands. El Señor del Norte has offered to kill him for her, but Regina is determined to show that she is capable of taking a life. Revenge belongs to her. Regina remembers how it felt to take that first life, the weight of the gun, her heart racing, and time stopping as the life of the Jefe de Sicarios is extinguished. 

THE SELFISH GIANT
Composer: Clarice Assad
Librettist: Lila Palmer
After the short story by Oscar Wilde

SYNOPSIS 

When a Giant bans all children from playing in his garden, Spring refuses to come and the garden sinks into an unending winter. Can the Giant learn to share? And who will melt his wintry heart? The Selfish Giant is a story of transcendence, forgiveness and empathy.

HERE IN THE QUIET
Mezzo Soprano – non gendered role. This aria is appropriate for singers regardless of gender identity.

“Here in the quiet”  introduces the Unwanted Child in Scene 1 of the opera and establishes the garden as a place where the lonely and rejected hide. The Unwanted Child sings this aria just after the other children have teased and mocked them, while attempting to claim the garden they’ve discovered only for themselves. The Unwanted Child breaks off and finds a corner of the garden to gather their thoughts, in which they express hope for a day when loneliness will end and take solace in the beauty and peace of nature.