Music by Michael Dellaira Selections From
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SELECTIONS FROM MUSIC BY MICHAEL DELLAIRA RECORDING ENGINEER: BEN MANLEY POSTPRODUCTION AND MASTERING: TOM HAMILTON WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1129 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 © 2009 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. THE ACTORS STUDIO WORKSHOP PRODUCTION C Music hériby Michael Dellaira | Libretto by Susan Yankowitz (after the novel by Colette) Musicians: Christopher Miele, B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone; Katrin Stamatis, Direction by Carlin Glynn | Music Director: Mark Shapiro violin; Emily Schaeffer, cello; Mark Shapiro, synthesizer The Actors Studio workshop production, May 6-9, 2005 Assistant Director: Christopher Presley Set Design: Shawn Lewis | Lighting Design: Nick Keslake | Costumes: Angie Kahler | Hair Fred Peloux, tenor Marie-Laure, mezzo-soprano, alto Designer: Herve Bauge | Production Stage Manager: Theresa Hartmann | Production Erik Lautier Lorinda Lisitza Assistant: Kira Simring Known as Chéri, a beautiful, young man Edmée’s mother, an ex-courtesan, is of 23, vain and arrogant younger and more dignified than Charlotte, but extremely vain, always striking poses. THE COMPOSER Léa de Lonval, mezzo-soprano Maggi-Meg Reed Lili, alto Michael Dellaira’s “haunting harmonies” (NewMusicBox.org), his “eloquence and sen- An ex-courtesan of 49, still voluptuous Lucille Patton sitivity” (New York Times) and his “flair for vocal writing” (ClassicsToday.com) are and beautiful. An intelligent woman of wit The oldest of Léa’s three courtesan friends, nowhere more evident than in this recording of Chéri. Not surprisingly, his choral works and insight into matters of the heart. tries to look the youngest, sporting tight are widely performed in the U.S. and Europe, most recently at the Eighth World corsets, heavy make-up and brilliant dyed hair. Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen, and his first work for theater, the monodrama Edmée, coloratura soprano Maud (written for mezzo- soprano and computer-generated sounds) was awarded an Elena Shaddow Patron, bass-baritone ASCAP Morton Gould Award as well as First Prize by the American Society of University Very pretty young girl of 19, sheltered Peter Clark Composers. Dellaira has also been awarded two residencies at The Composers and shy. Handsome, virile man in his 40’s; Chéri’s Conference, a Fulbright Fellowship to Rome, grants from the American Music Center, boxing instructor and an old friend (and Cary Trust, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New Jersey Arts Council and most Charlotte Peloux, soprano perhaps former lover) of Léa. recently, a Jerome Foundation commission from the American Composers Forum. A Marni Nixon graduate of Georgetown University and the Academy of Santa Cecilia, he earned his Chéri’s mother, an ex-courtesan, and The Chanteuse, soprano Ph.D. in music composition from Princeton University. His principal teachers were longtime friend of Léa. An ungraceful, Charlotte Cohn Robert Parris, Milton Babbitt and Goffredo Petrassi. Currently Dellaira is Composer-in- often nervous woman, Charlotte neverthe- Sexy entertainer at Le Dragon Bleu who has Residence at the The Center for Contemporary Opera in New York, and his forthcoming less retains a voracious appetite for life. a fling with Chéri. Must be able to sing opera, based on Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent, with a libretto by J.D. In her enthusiasm she often repeats seductively in both “pop” and operatic styles. McClatchy, is a joint commission from the Center for Contemporary Opera, Long Leaf phrases to make sure no one misses her Prince Guido, tenor Opera and San Antonio Opera. pearls of wisdom. Lucas Blondheim Handsome boy with a pronounced stutter, in his late teens. THE LIBRETTIST are aware that for the past six years Chéri has been involved in a sexual relationship with Susan Yankowitz is a novelist, lyricist and librettist as well as a playwright, whose work has their good friend, Léa, now 49 years old but at one time the most desirable of all the been translated into ten languages. Among her plays are Phaedra in Delirium (winner of the women of the Parisian demi-monde. Though such relationships between older women and QRL poetic play competition); Terminal and 1969Terminal1996, collaborations with Joseph younger men are common, and encouraged, in this world, no one expects the pair to fall Chaikin’s Open Theatre (Drama Desk Award); A Knife in the Heart (Sledgehammer Theatre in love. But Léa and Chéri have, and now that Chéri is about to be married, Léa realizes 2002); Foreign Bodies (finalist, O’Neill Conference 2008) and Night Sky, presented that age is her enemy; much older than he, she will lose her allure—and, she fears, lose throughout the United States and internationally. It had an off-Broadway revival in spring, him—so she decides she must give him up. 2009. Her monologue about Mukhtaran Mai, the Pakistani woman who triumphed over a gang rape, has been produced widely as part of Seven with 2009 presentations confirmed Adapted from Colette’s 1921 novel, Susan Yankowitz’s libretto is comic and sad, poignant and for New York, Minneapolis and London. True Romances, with music by Elmer Bernstein, is ribald, serious and light-hearted, for where such barriers as class, race, or politics divide the scheduled for production in L.A. during fall, 2009. In addition to her work for the stage, she lovers in works like La Traviata, West Side Story, South Pacific, Romeo and Juliet, or Tosca, has written a novel, Silent Witness, published by Knopf, and several films and television Chéri is a bittersweet meditation on that moment when all persons “of a certain age” realize plays. Her teleplay, The Prison Game, was aired on PBS, as was Sylvia Plath: Arrow to the they have crossed the invisible meridian that separates their youth from what is left of their lives. Sun, which won a WGA nomination for the best-written documentary of the season. Her work has been honored by grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, NYFA, TCG, Berilla THIS RECORDING Kerr, McKnight and Rockefeller Foundations, among others. She is a frequent fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell, and is a member of The Actors Studio, New Dramatists, PEN, The Dramatists Since an audio disk cannot contain the stage directions (not to mention lighting, sets or Guild, and WGAE. Recently she was a resident artist (HARP) in HERE’s Dream Music Program. costumes) that convey much of the drama unfolding onstage, for this recording I culled only half the music from Chéri from the four performances that took place at The Actors THE STORY Studio in May 2005. I was able therefore to choose my favorite musical passages without regard to whether, taken together, they tell an abridged version of the story. And I have Two courtesans now comfortably retired (Marie-Laure and Charlotte) have arranged the marriage re-arranged their order somewhat, again irrespective of their actual sequence on stage. of their children. Young and pretty, Edmée (Marie-Laure’s daughter) will wed Charlotte’s Even so, the listener who makes it through the whole disk should have little trouble under- son, the arrogant and vain Fred, also known as Chéri. Marie-Laure and Charlotte of course standing what has happened on stage and when. —Michael Dellaira EXCERPTS FROM THE LIBRETTO If a door swings open, I go LÉA SHE gazes tenderly at the breathless; it is you… I am giving way… sleeping CHÉRI.) (Tracks 1-3 are from Act II, LÉA (startled but instantly Really? You might have informed (As music continues, CHÉRI CHÉRI (triumphantly) LÉA Scene 4, the final scene of composing herself) me. unbuttons his shirt.) And what will you tell your lovers He will want his brioche and the opera.) So: you remember my name, Didn’t it occur to you I might LÉA (truly breathless) now? chocolat when he wakes… 1. What will I do tomorrow? but where have you put your be…entertaining… someone Chéri! LÉA How could I believe he was a (MIDNIGHT bells peal. LÉA is in manners. tonight? CHÉRI (quoting her; teasingly) I am giving way… passing fancy like all the others? her bedroom, preparing to retire. Is that the way to come into CHÉRI (pulling her toward him) You remember my name— CHÉRI (demanding now) What a fool I was! SHE is wearing a luxurious silk a room?! I thought I could escape to but where have you put your What will you tell your lovers?! He is the great love that comes dressing gown and her hair is You might at least take off your another pair of arms manners? LÉA (a confession, a surrender) only once, gathered up in a stylish turban.) hat and say ‘bon soir’. But wherever I went, I searched You might at least take off your …I have no lover. The great love that comes only LÉA CHÉRI (deflated; takes off his for you. gown and say— You, you are my only love. once. What will I do tomorrow? hat; sullenly) If a door flew open, I went LÉA CHÉRI (ecstatically) We will be discreet, leave And the days after that? Bon soir. May I sit down? breathless; it was you. How can you do this to me? She has no lover! the city, Wake to the first sparrow LÉA If the telephone rang or the (But her hands move to untie her I, I am her only love! and lead a quiet life in the Midi. And the milkman’s cart, If you like. postman came dressing gown) (THEY fall onto the bed; LÉA turns (leaning closer to him) Eat filet of sole and drink (HE sits down.