ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Recorded April 22-24, 2015 at Clarke Recital Hall, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida Director of Recording Services/Engineer: Paul Griffith Producer: Thomas Sleeper

This recording underwritten by the Paul Underwood Charitable Trust.

The Death of Webern was commissioned in 2011 by The Pocket Opera Players and premiered on October 10, 2013 at Symphony Space, New York. Thanks to The Philosophical Library for permission to use source material from THE DEATH OF WEBERN Hans Moldenhauer’s book The Death of Anton Webern: a Drama in Documents. AN OPERA IN ONE ACT MUSIC BY MICHAEL DELLAIRA LIBRETTO BY J. D. MCCLATCHY The score is dedicated to Brenda Wineapple, and is available from American Composers Alliance (BMI), www.composers.com.

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1613 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 Cast & Chamber Orchestra from the © 2016 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. Frost School of Music, University of Miami Alan Johnson, conductor THE DEATH OF WEBERN In the final days of World War II, when the air raids over Vienna became a daily, deadly THE DEATH OF WEBERN occurrence, Anton Webern and his wife, Wilhelmine, fled the city with the aim of reaching AN OPERA IN ONE ACT the village of Mittersill, more than two hundred miles away. The journey was harrowing— MUSIC BY MICHAEL DELLAIRA LIBRETTO BY J. D. MCCLATCHY nearly twenty miles of it conducted on foot, with heavy rucksacks on their backs. Yet a few days later, they arrived safely in the sleepy Alpine village, where they saw out the end of the war. After a difficult summer, Webern longed to return to Vienna. Although he Cast & Chamber Orchestra from the had not written a note since the death of his son in battle earlier that year, he was hopeful Frost School of Music, University of Miami of reinvigorating his career, now that the Nazis—who had deemed him a degenerate Alan Johnson, conductor composer—had been defeated. All his plans, however, came to nothing. On the night of September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was killed, shot three times in the stomach by an American soldier. CAST (in order of appearance) CHAMBER ORCHESTRA For many years, the circumstances surrounding the bizarre incident remained a Hans Moldenhauer Kevin Short Flute/Piccolo Trudy Kane mystery. It was known that the Weberns had gone to the village that night to have dinner Military Officer Eric J. McConnell Clarinet/Bass Clarinet Margaret Donaghue Raymond Bell Chris O’Connor Violin Scott Flavin at the home of their daughter Christine and her husband, Benno Mattel. Afterward, the Anton Webern Tony Boutté Violoncello Ross Harbaugh quiet, unassuming Webern went outside to smoke a cigar and was confronted by the Paul Amadeus Pisk Eric J. McConnell Percussion Peter White soldier. Three shots were fired in the dark of night, thus ending the life of one of the State Department Clerk Zaray Rodriguez Piano/Organ Anastasia Naplekova greatest composers of the 20th century at the age of sixty-one. Archivist 1 Mia Rojas Music Director/Conductor Alan Johnson Not until the musicologist Hans Moldenhauer launched an inquiry fifteen years Archivist 2 Ana Collado Cdr. George F. Lord Adam Paul Cahill later would some semblance of the truth become known. It is his obsession that drives The Jenkins Mario Almonte Death of Webern, the second collaboration between Michael Dellaira and the librettist J. D. Heiman Jeffrey Williams McClatchy. The mood is set from the onset, with a brooding woodwind line punctuated Helen Bell Maria Fenty Denison by the sharp report of the snare drum, as Moldenhauer sits alone onstage, wondering why Murray Carl DuPont Amalie Waller Esther Jane Hardenbergh this responsibility has fallen to him, why nobody else had taken an interest in Webern’s death before. In times of war, of course—and its aftermath—confusion reigns, papers are misplaced, and the death of a single man, even one as important as Anton Webern, can be forgotten. Not surprisingly, when Moldenhauer writes to the U.S. Secretaries of State and quest becomes something more than a search for facts in a pile of dusty documents. Upon Defense, inquiring about any documentation relating to Webern’s stay in Mittersill, he gets learning that Raymond Bell is no longer alive, Moldenhauer visits Bell’s widow at her home nowhere. He tries an archivist at the War Records Division. Again, no luck. The deeper in North Carolina. She recounts for him the facts of her late husband’s life, that he was a he wades into bureaucratic channels, the more determined he becomes. Indeed, much of well-liked man who died an alcoholic—and that when he drank, he would admit to having the libretto consists of fragments from statements, correspondence, sworn affidavits—the killed a man. “It wasn’t like he was saying it to me,” she remembers. “Or even to himself. lifeless language of official documents transformed into art, not only by McClatchy’s poetic It sounded like he was talking to some ghost in the room.” Amalie Waller, Webern’s sensibilities but also by Dellaira’s judicious use of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Note, eldest daughter, relates a tale just as sorrowful, singing plangently of the desperation she for example, how a driving ostinato in the bass line can help emphasize the doggedness of felt on the morning of September 16, when she found her father’s corpse on the floor of Moldenhauer’s pursuit. the Annakirche chapel, his eyes still open, a look of terror frozen in his dead stare. What Eventually, he learns that the 42nd Infantry of the U.S. Army had been present in justice had there been, Amalie wonders, in the senseless killing of “a man who was himself Mittersill at the time. Tracking down a soldier named Martin Heiman, Moldenhauer a victim of the Nazis, a man who had so much more beauty to give the world?” discovers that Webern’s son-in-law Benno Mattel had been engaging in black market Webern’s brief, luminous compositions altered the course of 20th-century music. activities, and that a sting operation had been set up for September 15. For Webern, it was Dellaira’s score contains some wonderful moments of homage, for example in the early a case of wretched timing. After dinner on that fateful night, he and his wife, along with scene in which Moldenhauer recalls visiting Mittersill for the first time, seeing Webern’s Christine and the three young Mattel children, retired to another room. This is when a grave and the house where the shooting took place, gazing upon the bullet holes still soldier named Andrew Murray and an Army cook named Raymond Bell arrived to arrest visible on the façade. Here, as if to underscore the sense of nostalgia and longing, Dellaira Mattel. At some point, Webern went outside to smoke. Bell didn’t know there were others quotes from Webern’s early Passacaglia, Op. 1—his first mature work and one of the last in the house, and when he heard footsteps, he went outside to investigate. What happened he wrote before breaking with tonality. There are also moments when Dellaira’s writing next can never be known, but soon thereafter, Webern staggered inside and died. Though approaches a Webern-like aesthetic: the economy of scoring and expression, the extreme Bell would later claim that Webern had provoked him, it would seem unlikely that dynamic contrasts from note to note and measure to measure, the distillation of a musical Webern—5 foot, 3 inches and just 110 pounds after a summer of serious illness—could idea to its constituent elements. There is even, in the sixth scene—in which Webern have posed a physical threat. lectures on the nature of musical law and the evolution of twelve-tone music—a lovely use None of this is dramatized in The Death of Webern. We learn the details from the of klangfarbenmelodie, the division of a line among several instruments, each taking up a retrospective testimony of Heiman, Murray, and others. (There is a marvelous canon in the melodic fragment in turn, thereby imbuing the line with different sonorities and textures. scene in which Moldenhauer and Heiman meet, each circling around the other—circling Schoenberg had coined the term, but it was Webern who used the technique to such around a truth that proves ever elusive.) This is the point in the opera when Moldenhauer’s marvelous effect time and time again. Dellaira, however, is not beholden to a single style—he veers seamlessly from LIBRETTO and the forces of evil . . . that man is killed by dodecaphony to lyrical tonality, from severity to wistfulness and nostalgia, from a passage those he looked on as his saviors. of lovely Bach-like polyphony to lines reminiscent of 20th-century minimalism. Ultimately, Scene 1 of course, this isn’t so much Webern’s story as it is Moldenhauer’s. And at the end, A stage empty of anything but a long wooden Why? the scholar finds himself alone in his study once more, knowing so little still. Why did table. At one end sits HANS MOLDENHAUER, What am I doing here? Raymond Bell shoot Anton Webern on the night of September 15, 1945? What precisely a man in his mid-fifties. He is a musicologist teaching at the conservatory he founded in What am I looking for? happened? In this final soliloquy, Moldenhauer bemoans the lies, the half-truths, the Spokane, Washington, after having fled from What can I prove or change? impossibility of knowing when “no one wants to remember.” Given the lingering air of Germany in 1938. Silence. The man sits staring pessimism here, it is perhaps fitting that the work ends quietly, on a gentle C major triad in ahead, as if into the past or into his own mind. All we know is that Anton Webern, the piano, an ending that is at once haunting, beautiful, unsettling—and deliciously ironic. conductor, teacher, composer… —Sudip Bose MOLDENHAUER Anton Webern, beloved husband, devoted Why? father… A beat. Anton Webern, who had helped to guide the Why me? century A beat. into the possibilities of a modern music… Why? After all this time. Why hasn’t anyone Anton Webern, so intelligent, so respectful, else looked into this? Family…officials…the so gentle… government…the army…someone? All we know is that Anton Webern, The dead can’t speak to us, and the living won’t. on the night of September 15th, 1945, having finished a simple meal with his family, A man who devoted his life to sound is the grandchildren having been put to bed, swallowed by silence. stepped outside a small house in the Austrian An artist who devoted his life to music—to countryside the elegance and order of music—is shot like to light a cigar. a common criminal. As he raised his head from the small flame, ANTON WEBERN A man who defended his homeland and its a shot rang out…. history, a man who spoke out against Hitler A beat. Suddenly a huge stack of documents and files, OFFICER Scene 3 We know his son-in-law Benno was under tied into a bundle, drops with a crash from One of ours? MOLDENHAUER, alone in his study. suspicion the dark above onto the table. The sound and By the American soldiers of occupation. effect are like a gunshot. BELL MOLDENHAUER We know Benno was arrested that night, Blackout. No, sir. Civilian. I had been there. Held for a year, and now lives in Argentina. I had been to his grave. We know Webern stepped outside to smoke. Scene 2 OFFICER My wife and I drove to Mittersill. Three shots. The featureless office of an army outpost. An Who shot him? The cast-iron cross, the withered wreath, He staggered back into the house and said: officer is sitting at a desk. Two other soldiers The moss, the wind, the inscription, “I have been hit!” are there, preoccupied. The door suddenly BELL The distant cowbells. Soldiers carried him on a stretcher to the hospital. bursts open and BELL appears, breathlessly Don’t know, sir. Was he already dead? panting. We even went to the house where it happened. Who had fired the gun? OFFICER There were still three bullet holes in the wall, Was he careless? Trigger-happy? Rash? OFFICER Christ, the war’s over. Waist-high above the ground, Was it an accident? Hold on there, soldier! You’d think these bastards would stop And pots of geraniums a fiery red. Was it a conspiracy? shooting one another. Was Webern at home when he was shot? BELL can’t get his breath. Where’s Murray? I had been there, seen that. Standing by his door? But how did he die, and why? Strolling in an open street? What’s up, son? BELL There were reports and rumors. Don’t know, sir. But who killed him and why— No one seemed to know. BELL No one could say. No one seemed to care. Sir . . . sir . . . There’s been an accident! OFFICER The war was over. I don’t know why it fell to me Alright. Alright. Why make trouble? To discover the truth, OFFICER You two come with me. The war was over and “shot by mistake” But it did. An accident? Bell, you take us there. was all It fell to me. What kind of accident? I’m so sick and tired of this Nazi scum. One heard in those days. It fell to me. I’m ready to shoot them all myself some days. The music of WEBERN is heard. BELL Come on, fellows. We know he went to his daughter’s house I knew his music. Man’s been shot, sir. that night. It changed my sense of what music is. I knew some of his letters. Scene 5 But music is an idea, And this same country— They formed my sense of the man. PAUL AMADEUS PISK walks on stage and governed by laws derived from Nature itself. imagine!—produced a Bach, addresses the audience. An idea given shape and color by laws— in whom all the old music found its true power, Scene 4 by notes that succeed each other, and the new music of today its true energies. WEBERN at his desk, writing a letter. He stops PISK each note a complex of fundamentals and Major, minor, accidental and dominant, and reads part of it aloud. My name is Paul Amadeus Pisk. overtones. variant and curve— I have received your inquiry. Bach was the blueprint. WEBERN Yes, Anton Webern and I assisted Schoenberg Arme Seelen. We have built what he designed— I am grateful that you allow me to discuss my during his Vienna concerts. Poor souls today complain of the new music or what Nature revealed through him. situation. I recall his musical integrity, that it is brutal, illogical, strange. I must ask again for your help this summer. accuracy and patience. But Nature has already foreseen— He was our root and stalk and blossom. As a publisher, you have done so much for me His Beethoven and Mahler were inspired. or rather, foreheard— The classical forms have remained. already He helped the singers, the players, all the ways sound can embody ideas It was our task to extend and clarify them, that I am reluctant to ask for more Who all loved him. according to musical laws, to dislodge the keynote, but I am afraid. Yes, I remember that well. laws before unknown but existing forever, and make way for the luminous harmony of Because of my eldest daughter’s serious and heard in the spheres. the new laws. drawn-out kidney ailment, Also, his lectures for groups in private homes. The new music has taken more within its grasp. How twelve notes listen to each other, I have exhausted the modest reserves He was not allowed an official position. It has taken hold of its idea and said: it must and in doing so show us the new worlds accumulated by teaching and conducting, be so! spinning inside the eternal universe… and even that is now threatened by the new Scene 6 Arme Seelen! political realities. At a gathering in a home, people sit around And the “new” Germany? I beg you— listening to the composer. One can only imagine what is still to come, Scene 7 He puts the letter down, and scratches out the with these Nazis who so hate culture. MOLDENHAUER’s study. last phrase. WEBERN I cannot even think what and whom they will I earnestly entreat you, for my family’s sake… Arme Seelen! destroy. MOLDENHAUER He continues writing briefly, and then signs Poor souls. It is our duty to save what can be saved, I wrote to both the Secretary of State and the his name. When they listen at all, for soon we may all be in prison for calling Secretary of Defense, Your faithfully devoted, They need to imagine a “picture” or a “mood”— ourselves “serious.” explaining the mystery, explaining my questions, Anton Webern Great green fields of struggle and heroism. hopeful the government would help me The light comes up on the ARCHIVIST. The light comes up on another man, on the Scene 9 with the official protocols. telephone. MOLDENHAUER’s study. ARCHIVIST 1 The lights come up on the other side of It is likely that no record was made. CDR. GEORGE F. LORD MOLDENHAUER the stage, first on the clerk, and then on If it was made, it was irregular Mr. Moldenhauer? There were twenty-four men to contact. the officer. And we wouldn’t know where to search for it. I wrote to each one, If we decided to search for it, the cost would Yes, Mr. Moldenhauer, trying to be discrete and persistent. STATE DEPARTMENT CLERK be prohibitive. this is Commander George F. Lord My wife typed each letter. The Secretary of State has received your letter. Record-keeping systems were not designed of the Kansas City American Legion office. Every morning, two more were sent off. We shall consult with the Department of Defense To answer the kind of question you are asking. Is this Mr. Moldenhauer? to see if any record of the death exists, Believe me, there is no conspiracy of silence afoot. Some were returned. and shall write further when and if… In a time of war, papers are misfiled. Well, Mr. Moldenhauer, “Unknown at this address.” Facts, like lives, alas, are lost. The 42nd Division, the “Rainbow” Division, A few were dead. MILITARY OFFICER (whose first words overlap well, sir, their monthly reports do exist. The others knew nothing. those of the CLERK) Scene 8 Unfortunately, after a thorough search, But by chance, the records of the 42nd Division Yes, sir. But one reply gave me news. No document could be found of the Army are in Kansas City, and a second Concerning his death or any investigation ARCHIVIST writes to MOLDENHAUER. No, sir. The light comes up on JENKINS. as to how… The light comes back up on MOLDENHAUER. ARCHIVIST 2 We wouldn’t know, sir. JENKINS If you keep looking away, Your persistence has paid off. It was pretty confusing in September of ’45. Yes, I was in Mittersill that night. Maybe it will disappear. In fact, a copy of the narrative report I was called out with another officer of the 42nd Division of the United States No, sir. to check on a shooting But others heard of my search. Forces in Austria at one of the houses in the village. A friend of a friend has been found in the Kansas City Record Center. No, sir. When we arrived, knew someone in the archives of the War I am sorry I cannot be of further assistance in a man of perhaps fifty or sixty Records Division. this matter. But sir, I have found a list of the officers was lying dead in one of the rooms. of units assigned to that area. He had been shot. Would that be helpful? MOLDENHAUER Mattel. Frank Bell. MOLDENHAUER Yes, but I began to feel I heard, though, that it was the cook It was the cook. Bell. even this tight-lipped, evasive answer who shot the old man. I’m sure of that. It was Bell I wanted. spoke of some form of esprit de corps, He claimed self-defense. Now I knew his name and was resolved to some resolve not to speak about those days. He had been attacked. MOLDENHAUER meet him. There was some kind of investigation. In a fever, I wrote to every Army office I could He had pulled the trigger, A light comes up on HEIMAN. I know that. think of. and at that moment The cook was confined to quarters. There must be a record somewhere. death made the two men one. HEIMAN No one believed the old man was guilty of Somewhere. Some time ago, you wrote to a friend of mine. anything. And weeks later, I had an answer. I wrote to the town clerk in Mount Olive I was the translator. In my day, I dealt with His name was Raymond Bell. and soon received a letter from Missus Helen Bell, The infantry division’s translator in Mittersill. Scores of men, Raymond Bell. politely telling me her husband had died five I know a few things about that night. High Nazi officials, SS officers. He lived in Mount Olive, North Carolina. years earlier. I never found it necessary to threaten anyone MOLDENHAUER with a gun. That same day, I had another letter from Dead? Dead! He did. Heiman, the translator. He did know. MOLDENHAUER After all my searching, how could he be dead? Here is what I had been waiting for. The cook. HEIMAN I had to know what he knew. The cook. As you know… I wrote to the widow and asked if I might visit. HEIMAN What was the name of the cook? Weeks went by. Only silence. On the night of September 15, 1945, MOLDENHAUER Finally, she agreed to a visit. I was summoned by the company cook HEIMAN …he wrote… I travelled for days to find her. to come with him and help arrest I hasten to answer your nice letter of January 8th. a black marketeer, Benno Mattel, HEIMAN and MOLDENHAUER Scene 10 and act as interpreter in a shooting that had Bell. …there was another man involved with Frank At the Bell residence. HELEN Bell is showing taken place. Bell. MOLDENHAUER in. There was a man there…dead…shot. The name of the cook was Bell. The first sergeant. His wife was beside him, emptied out by shock. I do not know his first name. His name was Murray, MOLDENHAUER But I went off with the men who had arrested It might have been Frank. even though I don’t remember his first name. It’s very kind of you to let me come. HELEN He will be 21 in June. MOLDENHAUER This is what happens in war. Please, please. Ten years to the day. So many people suffer. Doctor Moldenhauer, come in. My husband… It ends up killing everyone. Everyone. Please. my husband died of alcoholism. HELEN Doesn’t it, Doctor? But everyone liked him. Sorry? Doesn’t it? MOLDENHAUER Everyone here in town. Very kind indeed. Here, I found this for you. MOLDENHAUER (coming out of a reverie) Scene 11 I was sorry to hear of your husband’s death, Uh, your husband, Missus Bell. MOLDENHAUER’s study. Missus Bell. She hands him an old newspaper clipping. Did he tell you about the war? I served in the American army myself. What he did in the war? MOLDENHAUER This was in the local paper after he died. Other letters arrived. HELEN You can see. HELEN I finally heard from the officer who had I’m sorry not to have answered your letters. He was liked. When he came back, accompanied Bell I have been ill. My husband was liked. he told me he had killed a man . . . to the Mattel house on that September night. And I’m a school teacher. in the line of duty. Murray. His name was Murray. I seem to have so little time. He quickly reads the notice, and looks up, startled. Sometimes, when he was . . . A light comes up on MURRAY. MOLDENHAUER MOLDENHAUER you know . . . It’s very kind of you to let me come. But the day he died….September 15th. when he was intoxicated, MURRAY he would say, “I wish I hadn’t killed that man.” Bell had told me Mattel was a black market HELEN HELEN It wasn’t like he was saying it to me. operator But I don’t know anything that can help you, Doctor. Yes. September 15th. Or even to himself. Dealing in sugar, coffee, and dollars. It sounded like he was talking to some ghost Bell informed on him. My husband’s middle name was Norwood. MOLDENHAUER in the room. The commanding officer told us to arrest him. He was born on August 16th, 1914. September 15th, 1955. Bell and I went to the house We have a son… It . . . it brought on his sickness. and took Mattel into the kitchen, My husband worked as a chef. HELEN I am sure of it. pretending to do business with him. In restaurants. That’s right. He was a kind man. We’d brought some cigars and razor blades, a Did I tell you we have a son? Everyone says so. pineapple. We had, you know, a few drinks. AMALIE He and my mother decided to leave the city. Mattel would come and go. It is regrettable to have all this come up again Yes, I am much better now. They walked and walked, An hour or so went by, so many years later But the operation was an ordeal. they climbed, they made it to Mittersill, until we heard footsteps in the hall leading and be used to the detriment of our country’s In the hospital, though, I read all of your where my sisters and I had been sent. outside. reputation abroad. letters, We took out our pistols and told Mattel he How will this information be used? all that you wrote to me of your researches. I don’t know how we managed that summer. was under arrest. There was no food, no medicine. He had his hands in the air. Scene 12 MOLDENHAUR My sister Christine’s husband, Benno Mattel, MOLDENHAUER’s study. [During this scene, at I only wanted to discover the truth. found a small house for her and their children. Bell left first. the stage director’s discretion, scenes that are He worked with the Americans and fared very That’s when he was attacked in the hallway. being described may be pantomimed in half-light AMALIE well. Bell said he was grabbed. on another part of the stage.] And you have. He struggled and I heard shots. But not all of it. On that 15th of September—it was a There was nothing else but some hysterical MOLDENHAUER Saturday— shouting by a woman. The men involved never even knew the name, Benno and Christl invited my parents for supper. I called out Bell’s name. never knew the true identity of their victim. MOLDENHAUER I saw my father wave to me as he left to go. There was no answer. Please. Tell me. I saw him in that moment for the last time. I assumed he was dead. One last letter arrived. I ordered Mattel and his wife to go with me It was from Vienna, AMALIE She begins to weep silently. to the base. from Amalie Waller, inviting me to visit her. By 1944, my father could not compose a single That’s when I spotted Bell, coming back to the She was the oldest of Webern’s three line. MOLDENHAUER house with four men. daughters. Airplanes were overhead every day, Would you like to stop? We turned around and we all went into the I went to see her. noise and fire. I can come tomorrow. house again. His music had been banned, I looked into the room on the right. The Waller home in Vienna. AMALIE and every door was closed to him. AMALIE There was a man lying on a mattress. MOLDENHAUER are seated with coffee cups Then, my brother was killed at the front No. Thank you, Doctor, I feel I must go on. He had blood all over his shirt. in the living room. and my father fell to pieces. I was later told his name was August Webern. He had long since given up on mankind. MOLDENHAUER He wrote music, I think. Now he gave up on God. Missus Waller. There is no need…. AMALIE (pulling herself together) I ran to the hospital. The dinner was a happy time, MOLDENHAUER There is, Doctor, there is. No one knew anything. everyone sharing stories and laughter. But the family knew nothing, heard nothing. I was frantic, and no one would talk to me. When it was over, Benno presented Father At four in the morning, neighbors banged on Finally, a night nurse, with an American cigar. AMALIE our door. a cigarette dangling from her lips as she spoke, No one knew how he had gotten it. Benno had been acting badly, I must go at once to the Mattels. came up to me. Father was a passionate smoker, and the Americans wanted to catch him red- Something terrible had happened. “Last night an old man was brought in. and he had not seen such a magnificent cigar handed. I waited until dawn. He’s in the morgue. in years. In the dark, the way through forest and field Maybe he’s the one you’re looking for.” He stroked it, he studied it, he smelled it, he MOLDENHAUER would have been too dangerous. admired it. Didn’t everyone in the village know there was It was. But he did not want to smoke it in a small room a curfew? When I reached Christl’s house, It was Father. with three sleeping grandchildren. it was surrounded by American soldiers— On a blanket, He went outside to savor it. AMALIE rifles, bayonets, shouting, shouting. on the floor of the chapel— He bit the end, But the Mattels were deliberately not told. I was not allowed to go in. dead. moistened the bite, Why did my parents go there, I could see my mother at the window and His eyes were open. reached into his pocket for a match. that night of all nights? called to her. Dreadful terror looked out of them. When the light of the match flared up, Why did they go? She looked up, He had been left there alone, the sound of gunfire resounded in the dark. no tears, no grief, his body, alone in the screaming silence. MOLDENHAUER but her face filled with fear. MOLDENHAUER Why did they go? “Father was shot last night. She falls silent. Did no one know that the house had already Everyone in the village knew there was a The Americans took him away. been surrounded? curfew. You must go. MOLDENHAUER Search for him. Are you all right? AMALIE AMALIE Go. No. Soldiers were already searching the place, How could my father have known not to step Find him. AMALIE (recovering herself) outside, You must go. Eventually, Mother told me what had into the dark, into his death? Go. Go now.” happened. When they took him off, Scene 13 Mario Almonte (Jenkins) he had on his wedding ring, MOLDENHAUER’s study. WEBERN’s music is Mario Almonte is a rising young tenor with a natural “bright tenor voice” (South Florida his watch, his papers, his little money. heard for a while. Classical review). Studying classical music for only 5 years Mario has sung leading roles in All of that had disappeared both the United States and Europe. He has toured South Africa and recently debuted at by the time I found him in the death chapel. MOLDENHAUER Carnegie Hall in New York City. Mario has sung leading operatic roles in Così Fan Tutte Lies. (Ferrando), two separate renditions of Gianni Schicchi (Rinuccio), The Mikado (Nanki-poo), Until her own death, my mother begged Half-truths. the authorities for a justification. No one knows. and supporting lead roles for The Consul (The Magician), and The Marriage of Figaro No one would tell her anything. No one remembers. (Don Curzio). No one. No one wants to remember. No one would say a word. Tony Boutté (Anton Webern) You are the first man who has cared, Doctor. They are all gone. Tenor Tony Boutté has spent most of his career performing and championing new works, Webern. having premiered and recorded works by Philip Glass, Douglas Cuomo, Michael Gordon, MOLDENHAUER His wife. David Lang, Julia Wolf, Zachary Wadsworth, Michael Rose, and many others. These I only wanted to discover the truth. His children. performances have taken him all over the world, including Austria, Italy, France, England, His murderer. Germany, and the U.S. A review in Opera News of his performance as the title character AMALIE The Nazis. in Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma reads, “His performance was so pure and emotional, his Where is the justice? What they did. A man who was himself a victim of the Nazis. What we did. tenor so exciting…” Tony is currently on the voice faculty of University of Miami’s Frost A man who had so much more beauty to give All of it—gone. School of Music, and is artistic director of New American Voices, an initiative to encourage the world. commissions and performances of new works for voice and piano. For more info, visit Where is the justice? Webern looked into a world www.tonyboutte.com. that forever remained foreign to him. And still, he sought Adam Paul Cahill (Cdr. George F. Lord) what grace there is in the emptiness. Adam Paul Cahill currently resides in Miami, FL. He has attended the University of Miami Frost School of Music for his musical studies. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in THE END Music Education and has completed curricular studies for his Master’s degree specializing in choral conducting. His musical career has taken him to a variety of countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, England, Scotland, Japan and multiple venues in the United Maria Fenty Denison (Helen Bell) States. He has been cast in productions with Frost Opera Theater and performed with Maria Fenty Denison has been an interpreter of new and contemporary music throughout Florida Grand Opera in a variety of children’s choruses. Currently, he is choir director her singing career. A frequent guest of Maestro Gian Carlo Menotti and the Spoleto Festival, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Coral Gables, FL and is cantor at St. Hugh Catholic she appeared in the premier of his opera The Singing Child and sang the Mother in Amahl Church in Miami, FL. and the Night Visitors for him. Recently, Ms. Denison received critical acclaim for her work in Michael Torke’s opera, Strawberry Fields and Douglas Cuomo’s song cycle, Winter’s Journey. Ana Collado (Archivist 2) Audiences and critics alike find her performances of new works not only dramatically Born in Cuba, Ms. Collado is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance engaging, but compelling through her use of vocal color as a partner in interpretation. at the University of Miami, under the tutelage of Dr. Esther Jane Hardenbergh. Most recently, she was named an Encouragement Award winner in the Florida District Margaret Donaghue (Clarinet/Bass Clarinet) Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also 2012 YoungArts Merit Award Margaret Donaghue Flavin has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the Winner. In 2014, she attended the University of Miami School of Music at Salzburg United States, Europe, Japan and China. She performs as clarinetist with PULSE Trio, and program, where she won an Honorable Mention at the Schloss Mirabelle Competition. plays recorders for the early music ensemble, Impulso Barroco. She is a founding member In 2015, she won First place in the female 4th year university level category of the NATS of MiamiClarinet and founder and co-Artistic Director of the Blue Ridge Chamber Music South Florida District competition. Festival. Dr. Donaghue is Professor of Clarinet and Director of the Woodwind Program at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. She can be heard frequently on Public Michael Dellaira (Composer) Radio, and has recorded for the Centaur, Albany, Altarus and Living Composers labels. Dellaira’s first collaboration with J. D. McClatchy was The Secret Agent, which premiered in New York with the Center for Contemporary Opera and has been performed in France Carl DuPont (Murray) at Opéra Avignon and in Hungary at the National Theater in Szeged, where it was chosen Bass-Baritone Carl DuPont has been celebrated for his “dramatic, dark tones” on stage in as the Armel International Opera Festival’s Laureat. His monodrama Maud was awarded a wide range of roles including Leporello in Don Giovanni, the title character in Dennis an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, as well as First Prize from the Society of Composers. His Rodman in North Korea, and Jim in Porgy and Bess at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico Chéri (with a libretto by Susan Yankowitz), a finalist for the American Academy of Arts & City. He has performed as a soloist with the Rochester Oratorio Society, Southwest Florida Letters Richard Rodgers Award, was produced by The Actors Studio. Selections from that Symphony, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. An alumnus of Eastman School of production can be heard on Albany Records [TROY1129]. Music, Indiana University, and University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, Dr. DuPont is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Scott Flavin (Violin) Interlochen. He has served as a judge for the Fischoff, Stulberg and Fulbright competitions, Scott Flavin is Professor of Violin at the Frost School of Music. Since 2002 he has been and summers at the Castleman Quartet Program, Green Lake Chamber Music Festival, concertmaster of Florida Grand Opera, and he performs nationally and internationally on and ORFEO Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy. violin and viola with Pulse Chamber Music, as well as in the critically-acclaimed Bergonzi String Quartet. He has also been heard on over a dozen Grammy Award-winning albums, Esther Jane Hardenbergh (Amalie Waller) and has released two solo recordings. In addition, he is active as a composer and arranger, Esther Jane Hardenbergh enjoys a successful career on the operatic, concert and recital his works having been heard often on American Public Media’s Performance Today, and in stages around the world. She has appeared in the United States, Europe and the former concert across the country. Soviet Union. She has sung with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Memphis, Atlanta Baroque, Richmond, Alabama, Traverse, Las Cruces and Southwest Florida Symphony orchestras, Paul Griffith (Director of Recording Services / Engineer) Miami Bach Society, Handel Choir and Orchestra of Baltimore, and Naples Philharmonic. Paul Griffith is the Director of Recording Services for the University of Miami’s Frost As a recitalist she is a highly respected interpreter of 19th and 20th century German Lieder School of Music, and a Lecturer in the Music Engineering Technology Department. His and to positive critical review, she regularly presents a recital of 20-21st century American ongoing freelance engineering work has taken him to locations across the United States women composers’ art song throughout the United States and Europe. and Europe. In addition to recording, mixing, editing and/or mastering numerous albums in various genres, he has authored magazine articles, written technical manuals, developed Alan Johnson (Conductor) digital audio workstation software, recorded, edited and mixed music for feature films, Alan Johnson is Associate Professor at the Frost School of Music and Program and Music recorded, edited and mixed concerts and commercials for television and radio, designed Director of Frost Opera Theater. He has led many of the most progressive opera, music recording studio facilities, and provided audio consultation for numerous churches, theater, concert, and dance works by today’s most innovative composers, including among synagogues, and other facilities. others, Mary Ellen Childs, Douglas Cuomo, Anthony Davis, John Duffy, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Michael Torke. His work has garnered Bessie, Drama Ross Harbaugh (Cello) Desk, Jefferson, and Obie Awards, including an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Music Ross Harbaugh is Professor of Cello at the Frost School of Music, and cellist of the Direction. Music Director at the John Duffy Composers Institute at the Virginia Arts Bergonzi String Quartet. He studied with Janos Starker, Leonard Rose, and Andre Festival, he continues to perform nationally. Navarra, and won the Naumburg Prize, a Prix du Disque, and recorded 20 CD’s with the New World Quartet. He has soloed with the Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati and Toledo Symphonies, and held teaching posts at Harvard University, University of Michigan, and Trudy Kane (Flute, Piccolo) challenging works with a strongly personal performance” (The Miami Herald). She is Trudy Kane joined the faculty of the Frost School of Music in 2008 after 32 years as currently a doctoral student at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music, and principal flutist at the Metropolitan Opera. Active as a recitalist and chamber musician, she studying under the distinguished tutorage of Professor Santiago Rodriguez. Among has also done some transcriptions of opera works for flute ensemble. She loves performing Ms. Naplekova’s achievements include prizes at the Rudolf Firkusny Competition in Prague, new works and has been actively involved in the creation of some. Her favorite title is the 2014 Hilton Head Competition, the Ignacy Paderewski Competition in Poland, the teacher and she is thrilled to be sharing her wealth of experience with the next generation. Vladimir Horowitz Competition in Ukraine, the Wideman Competition in Louisiana, and the Princess Lalla Meryem Competition in Morocco. Ms. Naplekova appeared in recitals J. D. McClatchy (Librettist) has written many libretti for composers such as William throughout Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic, France, Portugal and the U.S.A. Schuman and Ned Rorem, and his work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala. His first collaboration with Michael Dellaira was The Secret Agent Chris O’Connor (Raymond Bell) (2011), also recorded on Albany [TROY1450/51]. McClatchy’s Plundered Hearts: New and Chris O’Connor is Founding Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Selected Poems is published by Knopf. He teaches at Yale, where he edits The Yale Review. Jersey. Chris has been associated with A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, Hudson Stage Company, Franklin Stage, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Target Margin, Eric J. McConnell (Military Officer, Paul Amadeus Pisk) Gloucester Stage, Book-It Repertory, Pittsburgh‘s City Theatre, Provisional Theatre of Los Eric J. McConnell, bass-baritone, received his Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Angeles, The Bathhouse, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Zoetic Stage, Miami’s City Theatre, the University of Miami and is working on his Master’s at Northwestern University. among others. Recent TV credits include Burn Notice and Magic City. His play The Mascots Mr. McConnell finds himself equally comfortable with traditional and contemporary is published in Smith & Kraus’s 2011 Best 10-Minute Plays. He is an Assistant Professor works. Recent roles include Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Bartolo/Antonio (Le nozze di in Theatre Arts at the University of Miami. Figaro), Sweeney Todd, and Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte). Additional contemporary roles include Ari Onassis (Jackie O), S.O. Curium Black (Intelligent Systems), Akala’s Father Zaray Rodriguez (State Department Clerk) (Entanglements), and Elisha Fitzgibbon (Roscoe). An emerging artist, Mr. McConnell has Hailed for her superb acting and vocal power (Classical South Florida) Cuban American received training at Seagle Music Colony and Central City Opera. mezzo-soprano Zaray Rodriguez is equally at home performing works from the classic and modern repertoire in operatic and concert work. Rodriguez has performed with various Anastasiya Naplekova (Piano) music organizations including Seraphic Fire’s Professional Choral Institute, Masterworks Ukrainian-born pianist Anastasiya Naplekova has a unique voice in the world of music, Chorus and Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and the Henry Mancini performing with “effortless virtuosity” (Cincinnati Enquirer) and “delivering the most Institute Orchestra. Recent performances include Zita (Gianni Schicchi) and Principessa (Suor Angelica) with Frost Opera Theater, and Professor Nitrogen Scarlet in the world Thomas Sleeper (Producer) premiere of the operetta Intelligent Systems by Carson Kievman. Rodriguez is currently a Thomas Sleeper enjoys an active dual career as composer and conductor. His oeuvre to Masters student at the University of Miami. date includes five symphonies, 13 operas, 14 concerti, four orchestral song cycles, works for chorus with orchestra, three string quartets, numerous other vocal and instrumental chamber Mia Rojas (Archivist 1) works and music for film. Sleeper’s compositions are performed regularly throughout the Mia Rojas is an Artist Diploma student at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, U.S., and in Europe, Asia and South America. Sleeper began his professional career at age under the instruction of Dr. Esther Jane Hardenbergh. She received her Master of Music at 19 as a member of Fermata, an Austin based group of avant garde composer/performers who the University of Miami in Florida and her Bachelor of Music at George Mason University presented interdisciplinary concerts throughout the state of Texas. in Virginia. Her professional engagements include Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro in Italy, Despina in Così fan Tutte in Korea, Musetta in La Bohème, Frasquita in Carmen and Diane Peter White (Percussion) in Orfee aux Enfer in Washington D.C., Maria Callas in Jackie-O, by Michael Daugherty, Peter White is a percussionist/composer from Tacoma, Washington who is currently Suor Angelica in Suor Anglica and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. earning his Masters degree in Percussion Performance at the University of Miami. With his roots in piano and drum set, Peter looks to collaborate with other musicians to create and Kevin Short (Hans Moldenhauer) perform new and exciting chamber music. Bass baritone Kevin Short is a regular performer with some of the most important opera houses around the world. These include the Metropolitan Opera Company, Lyric Jeffrey Williams (Heiman) Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Paris’ Opera Comique, Teatro Jeffrey Williams has been hailed by Baltimore Sun, as “very likable, a winning performance Nacional de Sao Carlos, Welsh National Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Savonlinna sung with much confidence, phrasing everything stylishly,” and Miami Herald as possessing Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Kevin is also an active a “commanding, sizeable, effortless, manly baritone.” He has portrayed a range of characters concert performer and has performed with the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Marschner’s Lord Ruthven in Der Vampyr, Cleveland Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Swiss and Italian RAI Orchestra, Radio Mozart’s Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s Figaro, and others. Williams has been a France Orchestra, and the New Japan Philharmonic. Nashville Opera Mary Ragland Young Artist and a Seagle Music Colony Young Artist. He is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. For more information, please visit www.jeffreywilliamsbaritone.com. MICHAEL DELLAIRA THE DEATH OF WEBERN Michael Dellaira CAST (in order of appearance) The Death of Webern Hans Moldenhauer Kevin Short Military Officer Eric J. McConnell TROY1613 1 Moldenhauer’s Study (Moldenhauer) [5:10] Raymond Bell Chris O’Connor 2 Army Outpost (Military Officer, Raymond Bell) [1:52] Anton Webern Tony Boutté 3 Moldenhauer’s Study (Moldenhauer) [5:46] Paul Amadeus Pisk Eric J. McConnell 4 Webern at his desk (Anton Webern) [2:34] State Department Clerk Zaray Rodriguez 5 Paul Amadeus Pisk addresses the audience [2:01] Archivist 1 Mia Rojas 6 At a gathering in a private home (Anton Webern) [6:14] Archivist 2 Ana Collado 7 Moldenhauer’s study, various archives Cdr. George F. Lord Adam Cahill (Moldenhauer, Military Officer, Jenkins Mario Almonte State Department Clerk, Archivist 1) [2:57] Heiman Jeffrey Williams 8 Kansas City American Legion Office Helen Bell Maria Fenty Denison (Archivist 2, Cdr. George F. Lord) [2:24] Murray Carl DuPont 9 Moldenhauer’s Study (Moldenhauer, Amalie Waller Esther Jane Hardenbergh Jenkins, Heiman) [8:34] 10 Bell residence (Moldenhauer, Helen Bell) [6:13] 11 Moldenhauer’s Study (Moldenhauer, Murray) [4:17] 12 Moldenhauer’s Study, Waller home in Vienna CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (Moldenhauer, Amalie Waller) [13:12] Flute/Piccolo Trudy Kane 13 Moldenhauer’s Study (Moldenhauer) [2:33] Clarinet/Bass Clarinet Margaret Donaghue Violin Scott Flavin Total Time = 64:18 Violoncello Ross Harbaugh Percussion Peter White Piano/Organ Anastasia Naplekova Music Director/Conductor Alan Johnson TROY1613

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