music        news/events        bio        contact        recordings

Over the River • withdrawn
1988

baritone: BILL
soprano: MARTHA
soprano: BEA
baritone: GIG
tenor: ROBBIE

women's chorus
2 pianos

duration 25'

first performance:
Boston University Tanglewood Institute
West Street Campus Theater, Tanglewood / July 23, 1988

SCORE
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8

SCENARIO
The events of this modest chamber opera take place in a small town in southern Iowa in late June and August. Bill, Martha, and Bea have just graduated from high school and are planning their futures. Robbie is nineteen and has been out of school for a year, working in town. Gig, Bill's younger brother, is sixteen. There are eight scenes which play continuously: 
scene 1
Martha on the phone to Bill. She is excited and full of news—Bill cuts her off. 
scene 2
Bill, Robbie, Martha, and Bea are trying to decide what to do tonight—bowling or a movie. Gig joins in the discussion and Bill turns on him spitefully. The others intervene and drag Bill away. 
scene 3
Gig is left on his own—he sings to himself. 
scene 4 
The bowling alley: Martha and Bea at at the score-table, talking about their plans. Bea feels left behind; Martha is excited at leaving. They each daydream. 
scene 5
Bill and Robbie are bowling, talking about their futures. Robbie fantasizes about leaving for the city. Bill is sick of working on the family farm–he has no plans, knowing only that he wants to leave. 
scene 6
Bill on the phone to Martha; he snaps at her. Gig enters. 
scene 7
Gig takes up the narrative, telling what happened later that evening. Bill and Martha visit Martha´s aunt and uncle. All the time the weather report from the TV can be heard in the background. As the aunt´s and uncle´s questions become more intrusive first Bill, then Martha, mentally break out of the scene to sing a duet about their frustrations. 
scene 8
Six weeks later. We learn what decisions all of them have reached concerning the coming year.