Claire

Opera in Two Acts

Libretto by Leven Dawson

1979

90 minutes

For solo voices, chorus, and orchestra

[Withdrawn, not available for performance]

Composer Notes: Poet Leven Dawson set this story in 19th-century New Orleans. In that period some wealthy French-American men kept mixed-race mistresses.

In Leven’s fictional story, two women are involved with the same man—Honoré Marot—one as his wife and the other as his mistress. None of them realize that his wife and mistress are half-sisters—both of them daughters of Honoré’s father-in-law (one by marriage and the other born without his knowledge to a former mistress). These relationships became known only after Honoré’s wife learns her husband has a mistress, who then goes to Dr. John and has him place a voodoo curse on Honoré’s mistress.

Leven and I were both living in New Orleans when we worked on this opera. After I read his finished libretto, I tried to point out some potential dramatic and staging issues, but the story and words had just “come to” Leven, and he was not used to revising. He professed he had no idea how to revise the plot relative to my concerns.

A wiser, more experienced composer might have abandoned the project at this stage—as I probably should have. However, Leven’s language in the libretto was remarkably beautiful—sometimes elevated and sometimes vernacular—and the essence of the plot was intriguing. Seduced by these elements, I started composing music and soon finished the first draft of the opera. I suppose I hoped we could address the pragmatic theatrical problems in a second draft.

That never happened. Leven continued to find revision impossible, and I accepted a position at Arizona State University. A few long-distance efforts to make changes quickly fizzled. Sadly, Leven died in Waveland, Mississippi, when Hurricane Katrina obliterated much of the town. For me, his death closed the door on this project.

Despite my decision to abandon this project, working on it was crucial to my stylistic development as a composer. My quick draft of the music vacillated between atonality and tonality, which, in retrospect, I felt further undercut the libretto’s tenuous cohesion. Reflecting on this pushed me to make several stylistic commitments I have honored ever since. (For example, see Laughter and Tonality.)