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A COFFIN IN EGYPT A Chamber Opera in One Act Based on A Coffin in Egypt, a play by HORTON FOOTE Music by RICKY IAN GORDON • Libretto by LEONARD FOGLIA World Premiere Recording—Houston Grand Opera, March 2014 FREDERICA VON STADE • TIMOTHY MYERS, Conductor Horton Foote’s dramatic stage play A Coffin in Egypt is owned by Sunday Rock Corporation. A Coffin in Egypt was co- commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Houston Grand Opera gratefully acknowledges the lead funders that made the commissioning and stage production possible: Houston Endowment Inc.; Kitty King Powell; Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund; The Andrew W. Mellon A COFFIN IN EGYPT Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Harlan C. Stai; Beirne, Maynard and Parsons, L.L.P.; and Beth Madison. The CD release was made possible through a generous contribution from the Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund. A Coffin in Egypt was A Chamber Opera in One Act recorded in performance at the Wortham Theater Center in March 2014. The recording was produced and engineered on location and mixed by Marlan Barry. Based on A Coffin in Egypt, a play by HORTON FOOTE WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM Music by RICKY IAN GORDON • Libretto by LEONARD FOGLIA ALBANY RECORDS U.S. TROY1500 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 World Premiere Recording—Houston Grand Opera, March 2014 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 FREDERICA VON STADE • TIMOTHY MYERS, Conductor © 2014 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. coffin_booklet_fin_14.indd 1-2 4/1/14 3:53 PM A Coffin in Egypt Houston Grand Opera, March 2014 Frederica von Stade as Myrtle Bledsoe coffin_booklet_fin_14.indd 3-4 4/1/14 3:53 PM Coming Home A COFFIN IN EGYPT, a new opera. By Patrick Summers, HGO Artistic and Music Director A Message from the Artistic & Music Director and the Managing Director Opera is an art that joyously traffics in the majestic, with large casts and choruses expressing heightened emotions. But music, which is at the storytelling heart of opera, is also an art of disarming intimacy. The late Each season at Houston Grand Opera we take tremendous pride in staging masterpieces from the Texan playwright Horton Foote’s single-character play A Coffin in Egypt possesses all of the depth and lyricism operatic repertoire—presenting audiences with celebrated operas from the past, while also being of grand opera, and shares several qualities with Foote’s most famous play, The Trip to Bountiful. Both are filled with his characteristic honesty and very Texan banter; they lead us to believe we are on a predictable path, dedicated to the creation of new works. HGO has long been recognized as an exceptional leader when we are diverted into an unexpected journey with wounded but noble hearts. Both are small in scale but in the commissioning of new operas, and we are thrilled to have presented Ricky Ian Gordon and large in emotion. Leonard Foglia’s A Coffin in Egypt as the company’s fifty-third world premiere on March 14, 2014, Overdoing this gentle property would harm it. We knew that Ricky Ian Gordon’s unique musical language, in the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. which evokes the essence of a particular type of American memory, would match Foote’s poetry, so beautifully We were also delighted that mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade believed so strongly in the piece rendered into the opera’s libretto by director Leonard Foglia. Mr. Gordon has a unique ability shared by all true composers for the theater: he can musicalize emotions, and he lyrically transfigures the quiet and private that she was willing to be lured out of retirement to take on the leading tour-de-force role of moments behind the pain that sometimes defines entire lives. Frederica von Stade, whose long and generous Myrtle Bledsoe. career has been filled with rewarding risks, embodies the quixotic and indomitable Myrtle. HGO remains deeply committed to presenting new works and we are grateful to everyone who made The triple-entendre title is of symbolic significance to Bible scholars and believers, as they are the final four this production—and especially this recording—possible. words of the Book of Genesis, describing the death of Joseph far from his Canaan homeland: “So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt” (Genesis 50, verse 26). Its second reference is to a literal journey—more of an escape, really—when, as a younger woman, Myrtle traveled to see the famous sights of northern Africa. But most importantly for this unique new opera, the title beckons us to a windswept community an hour south Patrick Summers Perryn Leech of Houston: Egypt, Texas, where the cathartic events of Myrtle’s life played out. The emotional journey of this Artistic and Music Director Managing Director opera is a reminder that for all of history’s sweep and grandeur, it is chiefly through our private relationships Margaret Alkek Williams Chair that we experience joy, pain, and, if we are lucky enough to live a long life, the accepting peace of forgiveness. coffin_booklet_fin_14.indd 5-6 4/1/14 3:53 PM A COFFIN IN EGYPT Ensemble A Coffin in Egypt Cast & Production Timothy Myers, Conductor Flute Christina Medawar ** A Chamber Opera in One Act Clarinet Eric Chi ** Based on A Coffin in Egypt, a play by HORTON FOOTE French Horn Sarah Cranston ** Music by RICKY IAN GORDON Violin Denise Tarrant **, Concertmaster, Libretto by LEONARD FOGLIA The Sarah and Ernest Butler Concertmaster Chair Co-commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and Erica Robinson ** the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Viola Eliseo Rene Salazar ** Premiered by Houston Grand Opera and recorded live March 14, 16, and 21, 2014 Cello Barrett Sills ** Double Bass Dennis Whittaker ** Piano/Celesta Laurie Rogers Music Librarian Timothy Tull Cast ** Houston Grand Opera Orchestra core member Myrtle Bledsoe Frederica von Stade Hunter Bledsoe David Matranga Creative Team Director Leonard Foglia Elsie/Clerk Carolyn Johnson Set and Costume Designer Riccardo Hernández Jessie Lydell Cecilia Duarte * Lighting Designer Brian Nason Captain Lawson Adam Noble * Gospel Chorus Director Bethany Self Musical Preparation Laurie Rogers Gospel Chorus Bethany Self Cheryl D. Clansy, soprano Associate Music Director Eric Melear Laura Elizabeth Patterson, alto Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair James M. Winslow, tenor Stage Manager Kristen Burke Jawan CM Jenkins, bass Assistant Director Keturah Stickann * non-speaking, non-singing role Sound Designer Andrew Harper Producer and Recording Engineer Marlan Barry Supervising Producer Robert Boldin Photograph by Patrick Summers Horton Foote’s dramatic stage play A Coffin in Egypt is owned by Sunday Rock Corporation. coffin_booklet_fin_14.indd 7-8 4/1/14 3:53 PM Track Index Bringing COFFIN to Life: The Creators Speak 1. It Was Him or Me 6:02 2. The Mulatto 3:22 When I read Horton Foote’s play A Coffin in Egypt, I We did a workshop last June, and Lenny and I thought 3. In Algiers 8:47 thought it was kind of gothic. I loved the concept of we needed more gospel songs, so we wrote two more 4. The Open Prairie 4:25 this ninety-year-old woman, Myrtle Bledsoe, looking while we were there. Then, in December we came 5. Lois and Lorena 6:30 back on her life and trying to resolve all of her sorrow, together again and a wonderful thing happened. 6. Captain Lawson 5:28 regret, resentment, and anger. It felt immediately like Lenny had written this beautiful little monologue for 7. Trees/If I Can Only Get it Told 10:30 the “stuff” of opera. As a reflection of her age, Myrtle Flicka. He’d actually taken it from the play where 8. A Coffin in Egypt 8:24 keeps repeating things, and I knew that would be a she’s painting trees and talking about the trees she’s 9. Little Brother 6:31 good thing musically. I could repeat musical themes painting. During the workshop, Flicka was speaking 10. Iris (Red) 4:51 throughout the piece and sometimes mutate them as the monologue, and I said, “You guys, don’t be mad 11. Zechariah 6:30 if a mind is playing with them. at me, but I think that’s an aria.” They both agreed, so I went home and wrote it that night, and we put it 12. I Live On 8:11 The gospel music element is integral to this work, in the next day. The orchestration is very transparent. and I knew pretty early that I wanted to write it The effect I was going for is almost an evanescent TOTAL TIME = 79:32 myself. But I wasn’t sure how I wanted to handle it— quality, like the piece is about to disappear the way perhaps record the music and then overlay it with the story is about to disappear in Myrtle’s head. the sound of the prairie, wind, and birds. One night I woke up at around 4:00 in the morning—this is sort I’ve heard Flicka’s voice since I was a child—she’s of the witching hour for me. I suddenly “heard” the been singing since I grew to love singing—so it was opening of the piece, which is the gospel song “Step easy for me to write for her. The piece fits her like a Back,” and I got up and went to the keyboard, and I glove.