American OperaProjects and Directed byJonathanMoore Music byDouglasJ.Cuomo Savage Winter #BAMNextWave no intermission LOCATION: RUN TIME: DATES: Opera Approx 1hr15mins BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) NOV 7—10at7:30pm

provided bytheBaisleyPowell ElebashFund. formusicprogramsatBAM Leadership support Season Sponsor: Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, President Katy Clark, Vice ChairmanoftheBoard William I.Campbell, Chairman oftheBoard Adam E.Max, Brooklyn AcademyofMusic BAM Fisher Savage Winter

Written and Composed by Music Director This project is supported in part by an Douglas J. Cuomo Alan Johnson award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and funding from The Andrew Text based on the poem Winterreise by Production Manager W. Mellon Foundation. Significant project Wilhelm Müller Robert Signom III support was provided by the following: Ms. Michele Fabrizi, Dr. Freddie and Directed by Production Coordinator Hilda Fu, The James E. and Sharon C. Jonathan Moore Scott H. Schneider Rohr Foundation, Steve & Gail Mosites, David & Gabriela Porges, Fund for New Performers Technical Director and Innovative Programming and The Protagonist: Tony Boutté (tenor) Sean E. West Productions, Dr. Lisa Cibik and Bernie Guitar/Electronics: Douglas J. Cuomo Kobosky, Michele & Pat Atkins, James Conductor/Piano: Alan Johnson Stage Manager & Judith Matheny, Diana Reid & Marc Trumpet: Sir Frank Melissa Robilotta Chazaud, Francois Bitz, Mr. & Mrs. John E. Traina, Mr. & Mrs. Demetrios Patrinos, Scenery and properties design Assistant Director Heinz Endowments, R.K. Mellon Brandon McNeel Liz Power Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. William F. Benter, Amy & David Michaliszyn, The Estate of Video design Assistant Stage Manager Jane E. Knox, Arthur Weldon, Joseph M. Joseph Seamans Jessica L. Halem Newcomer, Ph.D.

Lighting design Props Master/Wardrobe Assistant Cindy Limauro Sophia Andreyev AOP’s season is made possible by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Sound design Supertitles Operator The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, David Bullard Ellen Máirín Johnston the Amphion Foundation, BMI, Howard Gilman Foundation, the Virginia B. Production Assistants Toulmin Foundation, the National Alissa Jaquin, Joel Kalow, Endowment for the Arts (NEA), public Cal Silberstein, Holly Wright funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Production Photographer Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Steven Pisano Photography Legislature, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the contributions of many individuals. Savage Winter is a co-production of Text adapted by Douglas J. Cuomo from American Opera Projects & the original poems by Wilhelm Müller. Pittsburgh Opera Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, World premiere performance presented by sole US and Canadian agent for Schott Pittsburgh Opera, February 17, 2018 Music Corporation, New York, NY, publisher and copyright owner.

Some people choose to go on a silent retreat I chose to write for piano, electric guitar, ABOUT to embark on this interior journey to find ABOUT trumpet, and electronics, an unusual this deep authenticity. Others are thrown combination but one that I felt would support Savage Winter kicking and screaming from the wreckage Savage Winter the spare sonic landscape I imagined, one of their workaday lives into a degree of that would match the inner world of “The DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT self- awareness. COMPOSER’S STATEMENT Man,” our protagonist. I’d used electronics often in writing music for television and film, Winterreise. Winter Journey. Still others might ignore the call to grow and I always loved Schubert’s Winterreise and but this was the first time I’d felt inspired A journey in winter. change altogether and spend the rest of their at some point a number of years ago I got to use this sonic palette for more “serious” lives frozen into the rictus of a smile that the idea of adapting the underlying text—the music for the stage. I built a world of The idea of Journey, Pilgrimage, Camino, might be, in fact, a silent scream. poetry cycle of Wilhelm Müller (also called slow-motion grooves, unfamiliar moaning, seems to be something embedded in Winterreise)—and creating a piece around crackling wind, of whirring and spinning our race memory as humans. A deep, It seems to me that both the Müller/Schubert it. I’m generally not a negative or depressive things. The soundscape is like a musical pan-cultural need for an epic journey to original and this piece, inspired with loving person, though I’ve certainly gone through prism to be held up to , refracting enlightenment. The Ur narrative. A young awe by that original source material, periods of internal darkness and despair, but the roiling and inchoate insides of a man in a aboriginal warrior on solo walkabout in the are concerned with the deep existential there was something in this poetry that was highly charged and unsteady orbit. wilderness. The grail knight who must travel questions. The timeless questions of the enticing to me—a look at this darker side of a on a new path alone through the forest. quest for authenticity and individuation, person’s internal landscape. It’s a meditation Both the trumpet player and guitarist The 40 days and nights in the desert. The and of course the experience of the painful on life, lost love, faith, and death. Extremely improvise a fair amount; before I was a Camino. The Way. The Mythical Journey. “pangs of despised love” as my countryman, dark but also quite beautiful and moving. composer I was a jazz guitarist so that’s a Large, towering archetypes suffused Shakespeare, has it. Indeed, when the Fates part of my musical DNA. But also there are with numinous power. I made a solo 400- and the Furies come crashing down on us, Even before I began adapting the text (which influences from the sounds of electronica, mile Camino on foot from the Basque we might even join Hamlet in the primal I did before writing the music) I knew I loop-based music, distorted rock guitar, and country to Catalonia in Spain with just question at the nub of it all: “To be or not to wanted to compose this piece in a state of course contemporary art song. And though a backpack a few years ago. Of course, be.” as close to automatic writing as I could. I the text has a very clear (though elastic) a journey of this sort is a physical route had a vision of the music flowing like water relationship to Müller’s original poems, the through a topographical, empirically testable The room in which our protagonist finds effortlessly from my pen. This desire was a music doesn’t reference Schubert at all until landscape. But it is also a journey of an himself is of course a recognizable, physical conscious reaction to what I had just finished the very last poem, The Hurdy-Gurdy Man, interior kind. It is a paradigm of the bigger space. But it is also a metaphysical one. He — my first large work, Arjuna’s Dilemma which quite clearly pays its respects to that journey of life. It is a journey through one’s is here on a journey of reflection, confronting (BAM Next Wave 2008), which for me was, master composer. interior landscape too. his demons, his fears, his grief for his lost though very satisfying, also very painstaking. love, and feelings of pain and rejection. He Here my goal was to break free and let the This is at times a hard-edged piece, filled Someone, at the very end of my Camino, feels primal, animal pain. He is like a wolf in music determine where I would go as I with acute angles, but it is also a world of said, “Bien Camino” (“Have a good Camino,” a cave, licking his wounds. He needs to go wrote it. I realized that if I adapted the text miniatures—intimate, stark, and delicate. normally said at the beginning or during alone on a journey into the winter of his soul without any preconceived rules I could let Operatic in its heightened emotion, with the journey). Initially I thought he made a and hopefully find a thawing, a discovery of the music do just that; I could change it as moments of great power and great stillness, mistake. But of course he realized, unlike the truth that will possibly set him free. I was composing to fit my inspiration in the The Protagonist is singing a long and me at the time, that at the end of my specific moment. evolving mad scene as he searches for faith Camino I had just begun the rest of my life’s I was reflecting on ideas around the Desert and grapples with his (and our) ideas of Camino. Fathers and Mothers, painters, prophets, I kept this freedom within a defined overall love, human connection, loneliness, desire, hermits, “the lunatic, the lover, and the structure however—I stay strictly within the betrayal, faith, and finally the nature of I’m interested in the idea of certain points in poet,” sequestering themselves from the form of the Schubert song-cycle. There are existence itself. our lives being moments of great epiphany. world for short or lifelong periods in order 24 poems in the original, and I re-interpret Epiphanos. A manifestation or revealing. to journey to the center of their souls. And the text of each in a different way. For a few —Douglas J. Cuomo, Composer They can be revealed in the resonance of return to the world perhaps with insights poems I use more or less literal translations ecstatic revelation. Or, it would appear more gained from such an interior pilgrimage. of the original, and two others are purely often, they may manifest as moments of instrumental. For the rest I used the Müller crisis. There comes a point it seems where We are not sure at the end whether or not as a springboard, re-imagining the words one has to take deep stock of oneself. To our protagonist finds what he is seeking. for my own purposes. I took great liberties choose. “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Or indeed what choice he will make. But in doing this, and allowed myself to go choose he must. wherever instinct led. In some cases my text These epiphanic moments can happen at is a distillation, at other times a tangential any age. And several times along the Way. You too are invited on this journey. And exploration. Key emotional phrases are so it is in that spirit that I wish you, repeated, sometimes obsessively. “Bien Camino...” —Jonathan Moore, Director Taka Kigawa, Ashley Bathgate, Young Peo- tions with Pittsburgh Opera include the DAVID BULLARD ple’s Chorus of New York, and Chris Botti. world premiere of Ashes & Snow, Marriage Sound design Work for television and film includes themes of Figaro, Rake’s Progress, and . Other for HBO’s Sex and the City, NOW with Bill credits include Mister Roberts starring Martin Who’s David Bullard’s design credits include War Moyers, Wide Angle, and music for Homi- Sheen for Burt Reynold’s Jupiter Theater and of the Worlds by Annie Gosfield and Yuval cide: Life On The Street and over 30 film the world premieres of The Three Sisters for Sharon premiere with LA Philharmonic; scores. He has lectured extensively across Opera Columbus and Dracula, The Musi- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling the US on music, collaboration, and creativ- cal and Nunsense in Rome. Other design Bee ( Playhouse); The Curious ity. Cuomo co-leads the band Turquoise Lake collaborations include Pittsburgh Ballet, Who Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (St. with Afghani singer Humayun Khan. Baltimore Opera, Ballet, Quantum Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse); Ainad- Theater, Maryland Ballet, City Theater, and TONY BOUTTÉ amar (Frost School of Music); The Secret ALAN JOHNSON Pittsburgh Public Theater. Her work has The Protagonist/Tenor Garden (Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Music director/Piano appeared in two international exhibits, the Center Stage); Three Tales (LA Philharmonic, 2007 Prague Quadrennial and the 2005 Tony Boutté was described in a recent issue Carnegie Hall); NETworks presents: Anything As music director, conductor, pianist, and World Stage Design in Toronto. C&C Lighting of Opera News as “possessed of a radiant, Goes (National Tour); Men’s Lives (Bay vocal coach, Alan Johnson has prepared, projects include Gulf Tower Weather Beacon, communicative tenor.” A native of Louisiana, Street Theatre); Ninth and Joanie (LABrynth performed, and premiered works in opera, and other award-winning projects includ- Boutté made his operatic debut as Orfeo Theatre); Amadeus (Old Globe Theatre—Crit- theater, and dance since 1986. Among his ing Hunt Library, Pausch Memorial Bridge, in Stephen Wadsworth’s groundbreaking ics Circle Nomination); One Night Only: A many awards are an Obie for sustained ex- Carnegie Museum of Natural History Hall Monteverdi Cycle with Skylight Opera. He Night with Al Pacino (International Tour); cellence in music direction and a Joseph Jef- of Dinosaurs, and Carnegie Museum of Art has sung extensively, nationally and abroad, On Golden Pond (National Tour); and The ferson Award for outstanding music direction Chariot of Aurora. including New York, London, Paris, and Unexpected Man (NY and LA—Drama Desk (The Sound of a Voice and Hotel of Dreams, Los Angeles, and made his Carnegie Hall and Lortel nominations) He has also done composed by ). His previous SIR FRANK LONDON debut in 2006 singing Handel’s Messiah. live and studio work for the Metropolitan BAM appearances include Hydrogen Jukebox Trumpet He has performed and recorded numerous Opera, New York Philharmonic, , (Glass, Winter/Spring 1991) and Arjuna’s Di- premieres, including John Eaton’s Benjamin and Meredith Monk, as well as museum lemma (Cuomo, Next Wave 2008). His long Sir Frank London is a Grammy-award win- Button, Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma (BAM installations for the Smithsonian Institution association with Philip Glass has included ning trumpeter and composer. A member of Next Wave 2008), Michael Gordon’s Chaos, and the National Track & Field Hall of Fame music direction for premieres in opera (In the , he has played trumpet with Bang on a Can’s Carbon Copy Building, with EAR Studio. Penal Colony, The Sound of a Voice); dance/ Lester Bowie, , Pink Floyd, They and In the Penal Colony by Philip Glass. theater (Provenance Unknown, The Myster- Might Be Giants, LL Cool J, Hector LaVoe, His festival appearances include Salzburg, DOUGLAS J. CUOMO ies and What’s So Funny, Henry IV Parts , Jane Siberry, Mel Tormé, Aspen, Bard, Schleswig-Holstein, Settembre, Composer/Guitar/Electronics I and II, Cymbeline, and In the Summer LaMonte Young, and and is Aldeburgh, and Versailles. Boutté’s extensive House); and music preparation for premieres featured on over 500 CDs. His compositions recording catalog includes works by Lully, Douglas J. Cuomo has composed for the of Book of Longing, The Making of the Rep- include the Yiddish-Cuban opera Hatuey Handel, and Bach, as well as multiple world concert, operatic, and theatrical stages as resentative for Planet 8, Hydrogen Jukebox, Memory of Fire (with Elise Thoron); Salomé: premiere recordings. Recent releases include well as television and film. His work includes Orphée, and La Belle et La Bête. Johnson Woman of Valor (with Adeena Karasick); the Fauré songs (Edition Peters Sounds) and Doubt, premiered by Minnesota Opera; The is music director at John Duffy Institute for folk-opera A Night in the Old Marketplace music of Boismortier (Centaur) with Arcanum Fate of His Ashes: A Requiem for Victims New Opera at the Virginia Arts Festival and (with Alex Aron and Glen Berger); 1001 Ensemble. He recently joined the faculty of of Power, premiered by Seraphic Fire; Black received a 2016 Rockefeller residency in Voices: Symphony for a New (with Sam State University (TX) and is Diamond Express Train to Hell, premiered by Bellagio, Italy. He is currently on a recital Judith Sloan & Warren Lehrer); and Tony artistic director of New American Voices, an the American Composers Orchestra (Carnegie tour of opera excerpts by Anthony Davis. Kushner’s A Dybbuk. In 2019 he will pre- initiative created to champion new American Hall); Arjuna’s Dilemma, 2008 BAM Next miere Ghetto Songs at Hamburg’s Elbephil- works for voice through the collaboration of Wave, (and in 2016 becoming the first opera CINDY LIMAURO harmonie; From Shtetl to Stage at Carnegie singer and composer. tonyboutte.com. ever performed in Nepal); Only Breath, com- Lighting design Hall, and Kurt Weill in New York. London missioned by Maya Beiser (International Fes- was knighted by Hungary for his work ad- tival of Arts and Ideas); and Kyrie, premiered Cindy Limauro designs for opera, theater, vancing Jewish and multicultural Hungarian by Chanticleer (Metropolitan Museum of dance, and architecture. She is a design music and culture. Art). His work has been performed by artists partner in C&C Lighting, a member of United including Denyce Graves, Christine Brewer, Scenic Artists and IALD. Recent produc- 2018) and co-directed the BBC Film version Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, HERE Arts BRANDON MCNEEL (Royal Philharmonic Society Award and a MELISSA ROBILOTTA Center, NJPAC, and many others. As stage Set design Midem Award at Cannes). This past summer Stage manager manager, he has called over 50 productions he directed his own new revival of the work in New York, and more regionally. He is an Brandon McNeel’s many opera credits in a 30th anniversary production for the Melissa Robilotta’s work in opera includes Eagle Scout and a graduate of New York include Il Matrimonio Segreto, Pittsburgh Arcola Grimeborn Festival in London, which productions of Porgy and Bess, The Cun- University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Opera; La Rondine, Manon, Gianni Schicchi, received universal acclaim. ning Little Vixen, The Barber of Seville, and and La Scala di Seta, Curtis Opera; and La Stomping Grounds at the Glimmerglass SCOTT H. SCHNEIDER Bohème, Opera Columbus. Theater credits He co-starred in his own play Treatment for Festival; The Passenger at Florida Grand Production coordinator include Fall, Huntington Theatre Company; the BBC TV film version opposite Gabriel By- Opera; María de Buenos Aires at Fort Worth Under the Skin and Ruined, Everyman rne. His play Inigo, about Ignatius of Loyola Opera; Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi at Utah Scott H. Schneider has been the produc- Theatre; The Miracle Worker, national tour, and the Jesuits, has been published in Opera; and Anna Christie at Encompass tion manager for the Bronx Opera Company Montana Repertory Theatre; Sawbones and English and Spanish and performed globally. New Opera Theatre. Her work off-Broadway for 11 seasons. Other credits include The The Diamond Eater, HERE; Tartuffe, The Last year he co-wrote/directed Invention of includes Plenty and Barbecue at The Public Preacher and The Shrink and An Error of the New School; Sweeney Todd, Carnegie Mel- Morel (music, Stewart Copeland), at Theater; Skeleton Crew at Atlantic Theater Moon (The Beckett Theatre); The Megile of lon; Blind Angels, Theatre for the New City; Opera Theater and recently revived this year Company; and A Day by the Sea at Mint Itzik Manger and Kulturefest NYC (National and The Head Hunter, Producers Club. As at Long Beach Opera. He directed the world Theater Company. Regionally, her work Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene); She Loves Me an associate designer, McNeel has worked premiere of Savage Winter at Pittsburgh includes the Williamstown Theatre Festival (Caramoor); Marie Galante (Opera Français with colleagues Derek McLane, David Grop- Opera earlier this year. He has directed and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. de New York); Darkling (American Opera man, Paul Tate DePoo, Narelle Sissons, premiere operas by Henze, Schnittke, Tur- She holds a BA from Christopher Newport Projects); and Joy (The Actors’ Playhouse). David Korins, Lee Savage, Dane Laffrey, nage, Muller-Wieland, MacMillan, Nyman, University in Newport News, VA, and an He has worked as stage manager for opera among others—with productions at many and Berkeley, among many others. He has MFA from University of Illinois at Urbana- and theater productions off-Broadway, distinguished regional theaters, major opera worked with artists as diverse as Ludovico Champaign. regionally, and on tour. His design credits companies, and Broadway. Brandon McNeel Einaudi, Joe Strummer of The Clash, punk include lighting for Centenary Stage Com- is a Brooklyn-based designer, originally from band Killing Joke, classical violinist Daniel JOSEPH SEAMANS pany, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, and Club Powell, WY. He holds a BFA from the Univer- Hope, jazz artist , bassist Jah Video design Med International. Schneider is the former sity of Montana in the wonderful city of Mis- Wobble, reggae star Eddie Grant, and indus- treasurer of Stage Managers’ Association, a soula, and his MFA degree from the Carnegie trial band Test Dept. Joseph Seamans began designing projections graduate of Wesleyan University, and artistic Mellon University School of Drama. in 2012 after a 40-year career making PBS director of Bad Dog Productions. Moore’s other awards include two Edinburgh documentaries and independent films includ- JONATHAN MOORE Festival Fringe First Awards; best director, ing projects for NOVA, Frontline, National INTUITIVE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Director best libretto awards (Munich Biennale); Geographic, and Mister Rogers Neighbor- Production manager runner up for the Verity Bargate Award; and hood. For Pittsburgh’s Quantum Theatre he Jonathan Moore is a London-based award- a nomination for an Olivier Award. He has has created projections for María de Buenos Intuitive Production Management is a winning British/Irish actor, published been a guest speaker on the arts at Oxford Aires, , Mnemonic, All the New York-based theatrical production firm playwright, librettist, and director who has University, London School of Economics, Names, The Winter’s Tale, Ciara, Red Hills, specializing in opera, off-Broadway, dance, worked in Britain and internationally (Royal and as a panelist at Opera America in New and Chatterton. He also designed projections and live events. Founded by Robert Signom Shakespeare Company, English National York. He was featured on the cover of Time for Pittsburgh’s Microscopic Opera’s produc- III and Scott H. Schneider, its mission is Opera, National Theatre, West End, Shake- Out and has had an entry in Who’s Who tions of Thérèse Raquin, Night of the Living to bring superior production values and speare’s Globe at the invitation of Mark since 2007. Future projects include text Dead, and Frida. This is Seamans’ first personalized support to each performance. Rylance, Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, and direction of a world premiere opera by production with American Opera Projects. intuitiveprodmgmt.com Opera North, BBC TV and Radio, Almeida, Michael Nyman, a new music theater piece Donmar, Arcola, The Gate, La Fenice Venice, by Ludovico Einaudi, a feature film script ROBERT SIGNOM III Chicago Opera Theater, Long Beach Opera, commission, and developing a new musical. Production manager Savannah Festival, Munich Biennale, and jonathanmooreuk.com many more.) He directed (and co-adapted Robert Signom III has been working in the libretto for) the world premiere opera production for over 15 years. As production Greek by Mark Anthony Turnage which re- manager, he has worked for Tri-Cities Opera, ceived an Olivier Award nomination (Munich Opera Saratoga, Signature Theatre, Gotham Biennale, ENO, and at BAM Next Wave Chamber Opera, Aspen Opera Theatre

AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS PITTSBURGH OPERA Producer Producer

Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, Pittsburgh Opera celebrates its 80th season Brooklyn’s American Opera Projects (AOP) in 2018—19. Established by five intrepid is at the forefront of the contemporary opera women in 1939, Pittsburgh Opera is viewed movement through its commissioning, as one of the most vibrant opera organiza- developing, and producing of opera and tions in the US, with a rich artistic tradition, music theater projects, training programs for outstanding educational programs, an ac- student and emerging composers and libret- claimed resident artist training program, and tists, and community engagement. Savage a progressive outlook toward the future. Its Winter is AOP’s third co-production with green initiative culminated in LEED® Silver Pittsburgh Opera, where the opera had its certification for its Strip District headquarters, Jonathan Moore Photo: Courtesy of the artist Douglas J. Cuomo Photo: Dan Fried world premiere in February, and the fourth and its capacity as a true community partner AOP production to appear at BAM following has increased significantly under general Hagoromo starring Wendy Whelan (Next director Christopher Hahn’s leadership. Wave 2015) and As One (part of the Profes- sional Development Program, 2014), which Pittsburgh Opera has since become the most produced Ameri- General Director: Christopher Hahn can opera written in the 21st-century with Music Director: Antony Walker over 25 new productions since its premiere. Managing Director: William J. Powers aopopera.org Artistic Administrator: Robert Boldin Manager of Operations and Resident Artist AOP Board of Directors: Program: Emily Grand Dr. Coco Lazaroff*, Chairperson, Marshall Director of Development: MIchael Braxton Cohen, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sarah Director of Finance: Robert Rak Moulton Faux, J. David Jackson, Charles Director of Marketing and Communications: Jarden, W. Wilson Jones; Mark Kalow, Anna Christian D. Cox Rabinowitz, Norman Ryan. Director of Production: Tara E. Kovach Tony Boutté Photo: Larry Auerbach Alan Johnson Photo: Courtesy of the artist *in Memoriam

AOP Staff: General Director: Charles Jarden Special Thanks! Producing Director: Matt Gray Development Consultant: Anne Troy The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, Bookkeeping: Naomi Ramirez Diane Wondisford and Music Theatre Group, Counsel: Arnold & Porter Eric Ferring, Tenor, Sharon Guskin, Kristian Accountants: Certus LLP Tchetchko, Michael Zuraw and Aperio, Music of the Americas, Richard and Margaret Norton, Robert Gilder and Sam Krum, Sam Houston State University School of Music, Target Margin Theater

BAM®, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Next Wave®, Sir Frank London Photo: Adrian Buckmaster and Teknopolis® are trademarks of Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc. © Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc. (2018). Savage Winter The sin fixed on the house. In joy and sorrow. 9. SPARK I should have known it, Joy and sorrow, I felt both these things I see a light. Libretto No one faithful could live here Yet I was drawn to it, ever was I drawn to it. Half blind I follow it, I can tell by the weather vane. And just today I had to walk past it in the Into the rocks I descend. Composer: Douglas J. Cuomo, with text The wind has spun around my head dead of night. How shall I find, find a way out of here? based on Wilhelm Müller’s Winterreise Inside the house and out. But even in the pitch black dark I felt the That does not trouble my mind. poetry cycle, adapted by the composer. Inside that house they don’t care about me need to close my eyes. I often stray from the path or my grief. And its branches rustled as if they were But what does it matter 1. GOOD NIGHT No one faithful could live here calling me, since every path leads to one goal? I arrived a stranger a stranger I depart. I can tell by the weather vane and the wind. Saying come to me, come to me my friend. All of our joys, In May wildflowers bloomed and I Here you will find rest my friend rest. All of our sorrows was blessed. 3. FROZEN TEARS The cold wind blew straight on my face. Are nothing but sparks in the night. We spoke of love even marriage. Frozen drops fall from my cheeks. My hat flew from my head, I did not A fracture in this earth pulls me in. Now the world is so desolate. Have I then not noticed turn back. Calmly I wend my way down. The path concealed beneath the snow. I have been weeping? I am many hours journey from that place. Every river will reach the sea. I must go now in this ink black night, alone. Ah tears, my tears, Still I hear the rustling of leaves Every sorrow will reach its grave. As my companion only grey shadows thrown Are you so cold that you turn to ice? Calling to me, “here you will find rest When I am done I will be free. by the moon, Like the cold morning dew? my friend.” When all is dark I will be free. The sound of the dogs and the tracks of deer And yet you well up so scaldingly hot In the abyss I will be free. on the white snow. From your source within my frigid heart, 6. THE DELUGE Under the earth I will be free. Why should I stay to be driven out? As if you would melt all the ice of winter. [Instrumental] All of my grief will reach its grave. Let dogs before their master’s gate. Love delights in wandering God made it so! 4. NUMBNESS 7. A SHARP STONE 10. REST Beloved good night! In vain I seek his footprints in the snow, I carve with a sharp stone As I lie down to rest I will not disturb you when you dream or Where we walked hand in hand through The name of my beloved I see how tired I am. spoil your rest. green meadow. On this icy crust. But to move is to forget. You shall not hear my footsteps. I will kiss the dirt My heart sees itself there. It was too cold to rest, Softly softly the door is closed. And use my burning tears The wind was harsh but blew me on. As I pass I write only good night on To pierce ice and snow 8. RETROSPECT When at last I found shelter your gate, Until I see the earth below. The soles of my feet are burning My limbs could not find rest, So that you might see I thought of you. Where shall I find a flower? Though I walk on ice and snow. So hot their wounds did burn. Where shall I find green grass? I do not want to breathe again You too my heart, 2. THE WEATHERVANE The flowers are dead the grass is so pale. ‘Til the town is out of sight. So wild in storm and fight. I hear the wind whistling outside my Oh shall I take no memory from here? I stumbled on every stone Now in this calm you feel the serpent’s bite. lover’s house. And when my sorrow dies In my haste to leave that town. My lover’s house, my lover’s house. Who will speak to me of him? The crows throw ice upon my head 11. DREAM OF SPRING Did I mention? My heart is dead Down from the roof of every house. I had a dream last night. That’s my lover’s house. His image cold and rigid locked within it. Oh town, I remember how you received me. I saw flowers clear as day, bright flowers. That is my lover’s house. I can’t warm my heart, The thrush sat with the nightingale outside Also meadows, Am I deluded? For if it melts again his image too will your window, Green meadows, shining green in the It could be. float away. Each trying to sing the most beautiful song. warm sun. But I think the wind is mocking me. Trees blossom clear water flows from And bird calls, happy bird calls. I may be deluded, maybe I’m deluded. 5. THE LINDEN TREE the fountain. But then the cock crowed and my Could it be mocking me? The wind. By the gate behind the well stands a And when I first saw his eyes my fate eyes awoke. Well look at that weather vane, linden tree was sealed. It was cold. Aha, look at that weather vane. Sitting in its shade I had many a When I think of that day now, Dark. Aha, how did I miss it? sweet dream. I wish I could look back once more I heard ravens on the rooftop. I should have seen it, In its bark I’ve carved many a word of love, And stumble my way back to town And look, The sign fixed on the house. To stand again before his door. on the window pane, who painted With strength and without suffering, 18. STORMY MORNING I do not feel the hurt. these leaves? You my heart are a sentinel who hopes to be The storm has ripped the sky. Pain is for fools. Are you laughing at the dreamer who saw invaded, Tattered clouds fly about, Fool! Coward! Be brave! flowers in the winter? looking back full of suffering and without Red flames between them. Happily I step into the world, I dreamed of love. strength. My heart sees itself painted in the sky. Against wind and storm. Oh joy and rapture! You wait for even just a visit in a dream. It is nothing but winter cold and savage. If there is no God on Earth then we must be I dreamed of love and rapture. “Please visit in a dream,” you say as gods. But then the cock crowed and my “Please visit in a dream.” 19. DELUSION eyes awoke. Though I am done, my heart is my marrow, Ah delusion. 23. THREE SUNS Now I sit here alone and reflect upon A sentinel unmoved by facts, moved only by Delusion is a godsend. I saw three suns. my dream. fate. I looked ‘till my eyes hurt. I close my eyes once more. It waits for you and says “please, please, 20. SIGNPOST Long and hard My heart still beats so warmly. please, please”. But then why do I avoid the roads the other To be sure. Leaves on my window, when will you travelers take But there they stayed. turn green? 14. THE GREY HEAD And furtively seek hidden paths? I prayed they would never leave me, When will I hold love again in my arms? The frost has sprinkled a white sheen upon I have done no wrong that I should But now I know. my head. shun mankind. These suns were not meant for me. 12. LONELINESS I thought, “already I’m an old man” and I What foolish yearning drives me into These are not my suns. Like a dark cloud drifts through clear skies. rejoiced! the wilderness? Look on other people’s faces. When a faint breeze blows in the fir tops. But soon it melted away. Signposts stand on the road pointing to Not long ago, Thus I go with weary steps through bright Now I shudder at my youth. the town, like them I had three suns. joyful life, alone. How far it is until the grave. And I wander on restlessly, Now the two best have set, Alone, greeted by no one. Between sunset and the light of morning But seeking rest. If only the third one would follow. Alas that the air is so calm. Many a head has turned grey. I see my own signpost, I would feel better in the dark. Alas that the world is so bright. But who will believe it? Immovable before my eyes. When storms were raging I was not Mine has not done so throughout this I must travel a road 24. THE HURDY-GURDY PLAYER so wretched. whole journey. from which no one has ever returned. There, beyond the village stands a hurdy-gurdy player. 13. THE SENTINEL 15. THE CROW 21. THE INN With fingers numb he plays as best he can. Ah my heart, my marrow! [Instrumental] My journey has brought me to a graveyard. Barefoot on the ice, Though I am done, you my heart still wait. Here I will rest for the night. He totters to and fro. Keeping vigil, hearing only silence. 16. LAST HOPE Green funeral wreaths, And his little plate remains forever empty. Though I am done, you are my marrow, A leaf. You must be the sign No one wants to listen, A sentinel unmoved by facts, moved only My leaf, my hope. Inviting weary travelers into the cool inn. No one looks at him, by fate. It trembles. Are all the rooms in this house taken? And dogs growl around the old man. This movement is first a murmur, I tremble, it falls. I am weary, He lets everything go on as it will. Then a single beat, then another I sink to my knees, So weary and mortally wounded. He plays and his hurdy-gurdy never stops. then another. Weeping on the grave of my hope. Do you still turn me away you pitiless tavern? Strange old man, shall I go with you? Then a trickle then a stream, a surge, Onward, press onward. Will you turn your hurdy-gurdy to my songs? a torrent, 17. IN THE VILLAGE An eruption that spills over with hope. Dogs bark! Chains rattle! 22. COURAGE Hoping to hear something, anything, People sleep in their beds, When the snow flies in my face anything. Dreaming of things they do not possess! I shake it off. Though I am done, you my heart continue By tomorrow morning all will have vanished. When my heart speaks in my breast to wait. Let your dogs bark and drive me away. I don’t listen. Keeping vigil hearing only silence. Allow me no rest. I sing loudly and merrily. So long with no word, I am finished with all dreams. I sing to drown it out. With nothing, silence, nothing. Why should I linger among slumberers? I do not hear what it tells me, Though I move forward I have no ears.

“...a razor-sharp new production... it has lost none of its scabrous power.” —THE TIMES (UK)

DEC 5—9

Photo: Jane Hobson Greek Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures Steven Berkoff Mark-Anthony Turnage Jonathan Moore Stuart Stratford Joe Hill-Gibbins Daisy Evans

2018 BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

TICKETS START AT $35 Greekis part of Speaking Truth to Power, Season Sponsor: Co-Presented by BAM and The Onassis BAM.org Cultural Center of New York