COR
Operas
A farmer lovingly takes care of his brown cow, not knowing he and the cow have met before in past lives, once in the 18th century and again in the 20th.
Composer: Katya Pine
Librettist: Sharon Bajer
Content warning: sexual harassment, violence, fire
A northern land, the end of winter. A cold, dusky pre-dawn on the edge of a mountain; across the valley roars a mighty waterfall. In this valley there are two farms, one poor - owned by Runa, a single woman - and one rich, owned by Olaf, who wishes Runa for his bride.
Olaf proposes to Runa...
A northern land, the end of winter. A cold, dusky pre-dawn on the edge of a mountain; across the valley roars a mighty waterfall. In this valley there are two farms, one poor - owned by Runa, a single woman - and one rich, owned by Olaf, who wishes Runa for his bride.
Olaf proposes to Runa...
Composer: Norbert Palej
Librettist: Maja Ardal
Proving Up, based on a story by Karen Russell, is an opera about the American Dream, told through the story of Nebrasken homesteaders in the 1870s. A family dreams of "proving up" and obtaining the deed to the land they've settled. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house dwelling, and perha...
Composer: Missy Mazzoli
Librettist: Royce Vavrek
COR
Excerpts
Former lovers are reincarnated and reunited, but this time around one is a farmer and one is his cow.
On the first warm spring day in the mountains, Olaf, a rich farmer, proposes to Runa, a poor farmer, only to discover that she is in love with the bandit Davith. Angered by this, Olaf burns down Runa's farm, and Runa escapes up the mountain searching for Davith.
Johannes Zegner, an alcoholic homesteader in drought-ridden 1870s Nebraska, tries to convince his son to make a dangerous journey that will help the family obtain the title to their land.
Purchase Score here.
Purchase Score here.
Johannes Zegner sings of the “queer little trees” at a neighbor’s abandoned homestead. These trees are actually gravestones – crosses made of human bones.
Purchase score here.
Purchase score here.
A deranged, dirt-covered man sings obsessively about the infinite promise of westward expansion. He speaks of his family and how they couldn’t make it, but that doesn’t seem to matter to him because he has fulfilled all the requirements of the Homestead Act. It’s possible that he came to see his family as an impediment to “proving up” and has ki...
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