Audio Sample

From Standing Her Ground, Act 1, Scene 1:
Emma’s aria

A demo created with Vienna Instruments Sampled Libraries

“We mask what we feel”

from Act 1, Scene 1, (middle)

(Diego and Emma join the dancing. They dance well together. In less than a minute, the music is interrupted by the beginning of a different waltz. In a moment of magic realism, the stage action and/or lighting change, and Emma emerges as the stage focus.)

EMMA: We mask what we feel.
Our bodies are all.
We are children of Eve,
dancing after the fall.
I thrill as we circle
through turn after turn.
As we turn together,
the world starts to blur.
Ah, now is the moment
when we are the center,
The world spins around us
for part of an hour.
Ah, now is the moment
When we are the center,
when Heaven surrounds us,
and Paradise is ours.
We mask our longings,
conceal our desires,
then waltz close together,
our bodies on fire.
Our faces hide our secrets,
conceal what we feel—
fierce passionate burnings
we dare not reveal.
Ah, now is the moment
when we are the center.
The world spins around us
for part of an hour;
Ah, now is the moment
When we are the center,
When Heaven surrounds us,
And Paradise is ours.

(Back to more excerpts from Standing Her Ground.)