S t e f a n Weisman Darkling A n n a Rabinowitz Produced by American Opera Projects Spoken voices directed by Matt Gray, and engineered by Tom Hamilton Spoken voice sequences created by Tom Darkling Hamilton, Matt Gray, Anna Rabinowitz, and Stefan Weisman Music by Stefan Weisman Libretto by Anna Rabinowitz Spoken voices recorded September 22–24, 2010 and February 25, 2011 at Maeve Höglund, Soprano Merlin Studios, New York, New York Hai-Ting Chinn, Mezzo-Soprano Jon Garrison, Tenor CD design by Reed Seifer Mark Uhlemann, Bass-Baritone Photographs from the collection of Anna Rabinowitz Tom Chiu, Violin 1 Contemporary image, front, by Julien Haler Philip Payton, Violin 2 Typesetting by Mick Wieland Kenji Bunch, Viola Raman Ramakrishnan, Cello The creation of Darkling is a story of Brian DeMaris, Conductor transformations. It is a story that maps the Spoken Voices: Adam Belvo, David S. trajectory of bits of memorabilia found in Cohen, Emily Coffin, Elzbieta Czyzewska, a shoe box to publication of a book-length Edward Furs, Roger Grunwald, Denice poem to production of a multi-media Kondik, Eva Vidavska Kumar, Carol experimental opera performed in fully Monda, Mick O’Brien, Patrick Porter, staged and concert versions to its current Karen Sternberg, Asher Suss, Mark incarnation as a CD. Uhlemann, Hollis Witherspoon, Perri Yaniv Indeed, Darkling owes its genesis to fragments—fragments of memory, fading Music produced and engineered by photographs and yellowing letters saved Judith Sherman with Jeanne Velonis, in a shoe box—that demanded presence of engineering and editing assistant absence, recuperation (however limited) of life. The faceless, mainly nameless voices Mixed by Judith Sherman and of Darkling emerge from a world lost to us: Stefan Weisman that of Eastern European Jewry destroyed in the Holocaust. Yet these voices Music recorded October 26–28, 2010, resonate powerfully with our own as we at the American Academy of Arts navigate a world in which cataclysm, and Letters, New York, New York genocide, war, and unrest inform the 2 almost constant uncertainties of being. dream, I hope, will come true: my personal Darkling spans the period between dream that Darkling will now live its multi- the two World Wars, interweaving the dimensional life in our vast global world. phenomenal and emotional lives of its Stefan Weisman has composed music of characters with the catastrophic events so broad and interesting a palette that it of history. Darkling is not plot driven. creates a deeply moving whole out of tears Nevertheless, though the focus is and wit, dance and lament, life and death, placed on the emotions, the terrors, the and a team of exceptional performers incalculable losses of those years, the and production people have dedicated unprecedented narrative of the twentieth themselves, with a fervor Thomas Hardy century, particularly the Holocaust, could not muster in his poem, to creating remains an ineradicable presence. a new form of opera for the twenty-first Disembodied voices, spoken and sung, century—a form that shuns boundaries vestigial utterances, shifting grounds, and is as abundant as life itself. I thank indeterminate events, ruptured histories. all my outstanding collaborators for How does one make a poem from so demonstrating, by way of this CD of much that is broken, unraveled, erased? Darkling, what is possible for music and Somehow, using Thomas Hardy’s “The poetry now and in the years to come. Darkling Thrush,” as my armature to hold —Anna Rabinowitz the scraps together, I made a book-length acrostic poem. It seemed a miracle. It was even more of a miracle when When American Opera Projects first American Opera Projects engaged Michael approached me about Darkling, the Comlish to direct and Stefan Weisman to role that I would play in the piece was write the music for Darkling, the opera. not entirely clear. The director, Michael How does one embody the disembodied Comlish, was overseeing the opera’s while guiding opera theater audiences over development, and his initial idea was the uncharted, elusive terrains of memory that I would compose only some of the and loss? Indeed, Michael and Stefan and music, and then would supervise other a brilliant team of performers and technical composers who would complete the opera wizards accomplished just that. They made in a patchwork fashion. This concept of a a second, more remarkable, miracle—a multiplicity of compositional voices was poet’s dream come true. I cannot say it meant to create a sense of fragmentation was my dream, because I never did, in fact, akin to the style of the libretto. I resisted, dream such a work could derive from my believing that such an approach would, book. Yet, it did. And it was acclaimed by in fact, create a disjointed work lacking the critics and audiences! a unified musical direction. I argued With the release of this CD, another that I should write all of the music. After 3 convincing all involved that this was how song as the foundation for my personal we should proceed, I felt a sudden panic, reinvention of the acrostic form. I split his wondering how I would actually be able song into sections, and mapped those to complete the opera, especially since sections out across the libretto’s scenes. its premiere was scheduled to take place Then, as I began to write music for each in a matter of months. Anna Rabinowitz’s scene, I examined those particular mea- poetry was decidedly beautiful but sures and used some elements of them— complex. I read her book-length poem melodic fragments, harmonic progressions, dozens of times, taking careful notes with or textural ideas—as I composed. each reading, and feeling more and more Although Lee’s song has not been unsure about how to find a way to match included in recent productions of Darkling music with her intricate language. At one point I even considered withdrawing from and is not on this CD, I owe a great debt the commission, but luckily was urged by to him and to his music. (Please note that Paul Lansky, with whom I was studying the acrostic does not appear in the libretto composition at Princeton at the time, to accompanying this CD release because the continue. His simple advice: you have poetry has been edited and it is not laid out nothing to lose, and a great deal to gain. in its original form.) So, I committed myself to the project. When I first met Anna Rabinowitz, I told Michael Comlish and I began to meet her I expected to have many questions regularly, and we scrutinized the libretto about her poetry as I began to compose, scene by scene. I am very grateful to him and that I would need to consult with her for advising and guiding me as I composed frequently. Amazingly, I never needed to Darkling’s music. do so. As soon as my work began, some- As I became more familiar with the thing remarkable happened . my initial poetry, I was particularly intrigued by its feelings of doubt and apprehension were overarching structure. Anna’s poem is an swept away. I discovered that underneath acrostic based on Thomas Hardy’s “The the poem’s layered complexity was a deep Darkling Thrush,” so when reading down emotionality into which I was able to tap, the left hand margin, one finds Hardy’s poem spelled out, letter by letter. I wanted and in this way the poetry came into vivid to find a way to replicate the acrostic form focus for me. Ultimately, my goal was to in my musical process. Before I had even use music to make those underlying emo- begun work on the opera, composer Lee tions instantly clear and direct, so that Hoiby had already been commissioned by audiences would be able to connect to AOP to set Hardy’s poem to music, a nod and understand the heartrending story and to the opera’s initial concept, mentioned ideas I found in Darkling’s poetry. above. I decided that I would use Lee’s —Stefan Weisman 4 SETTING GROOM (spoken voice): Husband of the bride. He waits in Poland for documents The present, Anna’s mind. Anna, a poet, to arrive from the bride that will permit has discovered a box containing old fam- him to join her in America. ily photographs and letters in her late father’s closet. She opens the box. NAZI ANNOUNCER (spoken voice) CHARACTERS MR. BAD LUCK (spoken voice): A malevo- lent spirit. ANNA (soprano, spoken voice): A poet in extremis. Several distinct voices enact MULTIPLE SPOKEN VOICES: Various men her roles as narrator, commentator and and women, often in quick succession, meditator—as a young woman, a woman and in groups of different sizes. Unknown, nameless. in middle age, and a woman in late life. Her family has been murdered in the Holocaust decades earlier. Entrapped by DISC ONE her mainly undocumented, fragmented knowledge of their lives and the lives of 1 • PROLOGUE their friends during the period between the two World Wars in Poland, Anna rum- 2 • INSIDE: A STORY mages through scraps of memory, old letters, and photographs in an attempt ANNA to piece together her legacy of shards. Inside: a story — The voices speak in different registers and tones, representing the multivalent inventories, incidents — aspects of Anna’s state of mind and of her pleading to be flossed quest to make the absent present. from the teeth of silence — leaching congealed vowels — lately of / longing for BRIDE (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and words — spoken voice): Mother of Anna, hastily married and conflicted, who emigrates this is this — from Poland to America.