OVERVIEW
Title: Merk’s Dream
Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
Librettist: Nick Carpenter
Commissioned By: Tapestry Opera's Composer-Librettist Laboratory
Language: English
Producer: Tapestry Opera
Run Time: 5
Roles:
Role | Voice Type | Range ? | Character Description |
---|---|---|---|
Old Merk | middle | D3-Gb4 | A dying man |
Pauline | middle-high | D4-A5 | His daughter |
SYNOPSIS
Old Merk feels his age. He will die soon. He tries to prepare Pauline, his mentally disabled adult daughter, for the inevitable. What, if anything, will she remember of him? Of the house they share? Of their life together? Will she remember her father’s love? Will she remember the embrace of home? Will she understand why he will have left her? Old Merk’s burden lifts only in a dream; a dream in which his daughter is clear, expressive and transcendent.
MUSIC DESCRIPTION
SCORES FOR PURCHASE
Piano Vocal Scores:
Libretto:
Arias & Excerpts:
Sitting by the fire, Merk tries to discover what his mentally disabled daughter will remember when he is no longer with her.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Old Merk | middle | F3-Gb4 |
Pauline | middle-high | D4-A5 |
PREMIERE PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Premiere Production: Tapestry Briefs 2011, September 23-24, 2011 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto ON
Producers: Tapestry Opera
Cast:
Role | Name |
---|---|
Old Merk | Keith Klassen |
Pauline | Krisztina Szabó |
Role | Name |
---|---|
Director | Sue Miner |
Lighting Designer | Kimberly Purtell |
Stage Manager | Isolde Pleasants-Faulkner |
Production Assistant | Ann Bisch |
Music Dramaturg | Wayne Strongman |
Repetiteur | Dr. Christopher Foley |
Repetiteur | Jennifer Tung |
CREATION
QUOTATIONS FROM CREATIVE TEAM
"Pauline and Old Merk are fictionalized amalgams of figures in my own extended family. But Pauline may also operate allegorically. Reading the libretto now, (years after having written it!) I am reminded that no matter our age, we are all children before the mystery and finality of death. The piece seems to explore not just the desire to be remembered but, in this particular case, the necessity of being remembered. Old Merk cannot bear the thought that his daughter might not recall any of her life with him; that she might live the rest of her days having forgotten she was ever loved so much."
- Nick Carpenter
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