Instrumentation: one-act chamber opera (four singers and piano)

Libretto: by the composer from a short story

Duration: 35:00

Notes: This is a student work that I directed at Humboldt State in April, 1977. This was my big moment when people said, “You need to do something with your life,” so I applied to San Francisco State.

Synopsis: The story takes place in Appalachia somewhere between 1910 and 1920. There are four characters: a young girl named Samara by her dead father but called “Sam by most people (soprano), her boyfriend Billy (tenor), her blind mother (mezzo soprano), and an unidentified stranger (baritone). The stage setting can be very simple: furniture, a wood pile, flats to hide behind, playing areas defined by light.

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