PASSING BY
Songs by Jake Heggie
Isabel Bayrakdarian Zheng Cao
Joyce DiDonato Susan Graham
Paul Groves Keith Phares
Frederica von Stade
Dawn Harms, violin
CarlaMaria Rodrigues, viola
Emil Miland, cello
Jake Heggie, piano
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PASSING BY
Songs by Jake Heggie
poetry and texts by Charlene Baldridge, Raymond Carver, Jake Heggie, A.E. Housman,
Vachel Lindsay, Armistead Maupin, Terrence McNally, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Rainer Maria Rilke, Eugenia Zukerman
1. A Lucky Child, from At the Statue of Venus (McNally) Susan Graham
11:00
Some Times of Day (Carver)
2.
3.
4.
5:44
three songs for mezzo-soprano and piano trio
The Minuet
Simple
The Best Time of the Day
Zheng Cao
3:04
3:53
4:10
Facing Forward/Looking Back
16:14
5.
6
7.
8.
4:27
4:09
3:18
4:29
duets for two women and piano
Motherwit (Baldridge)*
Grounded (Zukerman)**
Mother in the Mirror (Maupin)*
Facing Forward (Heggie)**
Frederica von Stade with Susan Graham* and Joyce DiDonato**
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Here and Gone
songs and duets for tenor, baritone and piano quartet
9. The Farms of Home (Housman) 10. In Praise of Songs That Die (Lindsay) 11. Stars (Housman)
12. The Factory Window Song (Lindsay) 13. In the Morning (Housman) 14. Because I Liked You Better (Housman) 15. The Half-Moon Westers Low (Housman) Paul Groves and Keith Phares
19:19
16. To Say Before Going to Sleep (Rilke, trans. by A.E. Flemming) Joyce DiDonato
2:48
Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia
17. Ophelia’s Song (Heggie)
18. Women Have Loved Before (Millay) 19. Not in a Silver Casket (Millay) 20.Spring (Millay) Isabel Bayrakdarian
11:32
2:39
3:20
2:17
3:23
21. Final Monologue from Master Class (McNally) Joyce DiDonato
6:28
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4:32
2:59
1:53
2:32
1:00
3:06
3:26
Recorded June 21-24, 2007, and January 12-13, 2008 at Skywalker Sound,
Nicasio, California, USA
Producer and Digital Editor: Steve Barnett
(Barnett Music Productions, Minneapolis, MN)
Recording Engineer: Preston Smith (Perfect Record, St. Paul, MN)
Assistant Engineer: Dan Thompson
Piano Technician: Mark Schecter
Translations
German – Elke Hockings
French – Marie-Stella Pâris
Design and Art Direction: Alan Trugman
Cover Photo: Jay Elliott www.jayelliottphoto.com
Back Photo and Session Photos: Janna Waldinger:
Back inlay and inlay Photo: Alan Trugman
This recording was made possible by
generous support from the Ann &
Gordon Getty Foundation, David Stein,
Richard & Lucille Janssen, Franci Crane,
William & Cerina Criss, Betty Freeman,
Frank Jernigan and Andrew Faulk, Susan
and Jeremy Shamos, Thomas Terry,
Peggy & Reid Dennis, John & Bernice
Lindstrom, Jack & Morleen “Moe”
Rouse, Stephen McClellan & Elizabeth
Barlow, Robert & Susan Hasl.
Special thanks to all of the performers
who managed to find time to record in
the midst of ridiculously busy schedules
and whose work on this CD represents a
true labor of love; to all of the funders
for their commitment to this project
Joyce DiDonato appears by kind permission of Virgin Classics
All texts used by permission of the authors or their estates and publishers
To Say Before Going to Sleep is published by Associated Music Publishers, Inc.
All other songs published by Bent Pen Music, Inc. (BMI)
For information, visit www.billholabmusic.com.
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and to my work; to the writers whose extraordinary work inspires the music, and
to their estates and publishers; to Steve,
Preston, Dann and Mark for their skills,
ears and hearts; to Leslie Ann Jones,
Glenn Kiser and the generous people at
Skywalker Sound; to Janice Mayer, Charlie Hamlen and Classical Action; to Welz
Kaufman and The Steans Institute at
the Ravinia Festival; to Bill Holab, Don
Franzen and Jennifer Hughes; to the
memories and legacies of Johana Harris,
James Low and James Schwabacher; to
my wonderful family, and the remarkable
family of friends and artists who stand
by me always; and especially to Grayson
Sorci and Curt Branom, super heroes.
PASSING BY
Notes
Songs by Jake Heggie
Introduction
Ernst Bacon, taught me when I was 17
years old to finish everything, and never
throw anything away. Wise advice, for as I
get older, I find my younger self teaches
me more and more about what it is to
stay hopeful, adventurous and true.
Here are songs that tell stories about
now and then. Reflections of family,
friends and lovers passing by. A missed
or mistaken connection, a moment when
everything might have been different.
People who entered our lives and would
be there forever, then suddenly were not
there at all.
This recording is dedicated to the
mentors and teachers in our lives; the
ones who recognize something more
than we know or see ourselves. You know
who you are.
Though much of my life the past 12
years has been devoted to composing
opera (Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, Three
Decembers, The End of the Affair), my heart and
musical soul lie in storytelling through
song. In between major projects, I
always allow several months to return to
songwriting. Many of the recent songs on
this recording come from those periods, though some have origins dating back to
the 1980s. My first composition teacher,
Jake Heggie
“A Lucky Child” is the aria from At The
Statue of Venus (2005), a musical scene
for soprano and piano with an original
libretto by Terrence McNally. Composed
for the opening of Denver’s Ellie
Caulkins Opera House, the complete
work tells the story of a single woman
waiting for a blind date in a museum
at the statue of Venus. She is a nervous
jumble as she waits and hopes to meet
“Mr. Right,” for he is surely out there. As
time passes, she moves from hopeful to
angry, thinking perhaps he’s already been
there, seen her and left without a word.
Just as she’s about to storm out, she
stops herself and sings this aria. Soprano
Kristin Clayton gave the premiere of
the scene, which is dedicated to Karen
Kriendler Nelson.
me permission to set these poems, which
I imagine as the journey through a day:
a metaphor for life’s journey. “The
Minuet” is morning, when we wake to
see an idealized version of ourselves
young, dancing, magical. “Simple” is
noon, the middle of life when, even
surrounded by beauty, a question of
ending it all suddenly enters. To live or
die - is it that simple? “The Best Time
of the Day” is evening, the last part of
life, with a reflective appreciation for
love, peace, beauty and bounty. The
songs were commissioned for mezzosoprano Zheng Cao and the Harmida
Piano Trio (violinist Dawn Harms,
cellist Emil Miland, pianist Laura Dahl)
through Stanford University. The first
performance was at San Francisco’s
Temple Emanu-El.
Some Times of Day (2004) is a set of
three short songs based on poetry by the
late American poet Raymond Carver. His
widow, the poet Tess Gallagher, granted
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Facing Forward/Looking Back (2007)
was composed on a commission from
Welz Kaufman and the Ravinia Festival
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never really knew him, and this was my
way of trying to stay connected and work
things through. The premiere took place
in July 2007 at Ravinia with soprano
Michele Bogadanowicz , mezzo Tamara
Mumford and pianist Vlad Iftinca.
for the Steans Institute, with Margo
Garrett as its godmother. The set
explores the fraught and ever-shifting
mother/daughter relationship through
five duets for two women (four are
recorded here). For this project, I
went to three of my writer friends and
asked for texts on this theme. Charlene
Baldridge gave me two poems about a
daughter wishing she could bring her
mother back now that she’s grown, sure
they would have a better understanding.
Eugenia Zukerman wrote a new poem
based on a personal experience with her
aging mother, where the roles shift and
the daughter becomes the parent figure
for her own mother. Armistead Maupin
wrote a new text about the harrowing
experience of looking in the mirror and
seeing your mother looking back, even
long after she’s gone. The final duet is
based on a poem and melody I wrote in
1980 when I lived in Paris. I was 19, and
to get me through tough times I would
create conversations with my father. He
committed suicide when I was 10 and I
Here and Gone (2005) was also
composed for the Steans Institute. My
great friend, mentor and teacher, the
late Johana Harris, introduced me to
the poetry of A.E. Housman and Vachel
Lindsay in my student days at UCLA. I
returned to those poets and devised a
story based on their work for this set:
one that holds resonance in both their
lives, I believe, and certainly in my own.
The baritone, a wanderer, returns to
the town of his youth, now grown and
ready to make things right with his friend
(the tenor). Long ago, the tenor had
declared that he was in love with him,
but the baritone didn’t know what to do
with that kind of affection and rejected
him utterly. Now the baritone hopes
to reconnect and begin again with his
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new works on his well-known series.
I had long ago composed “Ophelia’s
Song” when one gorgeous spring day in
1983, Johana Harris said to me: “The
hills are green, my dear one.” The lyrics
and tune came to me immediately, and
I just needed the right place to put the
song. 16 years later, I found it in this
cycle inspired by Shakespeare’s Ophelia.
And who is Ophelia but an extraordinary
young woman - pushed, pulled and used
in a world dominated by men – seeking
connection and agonizing over love.
In the early 20th century, such a young
woman might have turned to poetry by
Edna St. Vincent Millay. So I did just
that, and these three Millay poems,
though not related in her collected
poetry, seemed to work well for the
journey of this cycle.
childhood friend, only to discover his
friend is dead, the town has changed,
and he is now a stranger. Three of the
songs (“The Farms of Home”, “In the
Morning”, and “The Half-Moon Westers
Low”) are reworkings of songs I wrote
back in 1987 at UCLA. Much of the cycle
was composed in Madison, WI, while I
was in residence at Edenfred. The first
performance was given in July 2005
by tenor Nicholas Phan and baritone
Andrew Garland.
“To Say Before Going to Sleep” was
composed in 1987 at UCLA and is a
response to the longing and fragility
expressed in one stanza from Rilke’s
beloved poem.
Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia (1999)
was composed for soprano Peggy
Kriha-Dye for her recital on the James
Schwabacher Series at San Francisco’s
Old First Church. Jimmy was one of the
most ardent champions of song I have
ever met, and he strove always to include
The CD ends as it began, with a text by
Terrence McNally, this time from his
Tony Award–winning play, Master Class.
This is the final monologue, spoken by
the character of Maria Callas. In this
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The Singers
moment she is alone onstage, having
been berated by an enraged student who
has accused her of being selfish, hard
hearted and reckless. She ponders the
moment – what it means to sing and to
be a singer – what really matters. Final
Monologue from Master Class (2007)
was composed for Joyce DiDonato in
memory of our mutual friend, James
Schwabacher. It was commissioned by
Rusty Rolland for the Merola Opera
Program’s 50th anniversary gala concert
in honor of Jimmy.
Penelope and Idamante, she has also
created leading roles in the world
premieres of The Bonesetter’s Daughter at
San Francisco Opera and Salsipuedes
at Houston Grand Opera. A favorite
of conductor Seiji Ozawa, she has
performed with him at the Saito
Kinen Festival, the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, and at the 1998 Winter
Olympic Games in Japan. Ms. Cao holds
degrees from the Shanghai Conservatory
and the Curtis Institute.
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian burst
onto the international opera scene after
winning first prize in Placido Domingo’s
2000 Operalia competition. Since then,
she has performed in concert and opera
at the world’s major houses, admired as
much for her stunning stage presence
as for her exceptional musicality. For
her many recordings, she has received
four Canadian Juno awards (Canada’s
highest prize) and two Grammy award
nominations; she also sings on the
Grammy award-winning soundtrack of
the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Born in Lebanon of proud Armenian
heritage, she is now a citizen of Canada.
www.bayrakdarian.com
“Incomparable…Dazzling…Divine”
effuse the critics in describing Joyce
DiDonato’s ascent to the top of
the opera world where she enjoys an
enthusiastic international following. Notable performances with the
Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National
de Paris, Royal Opera House Covent
Garden, and La Scala, have earned
critical acclamation, as has her growing
discography as an EMI/Virgin Classics
Mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao performs
regularly with great opera companies
and orchestras throughout the United
States, Europe and Asia. Noted for her
interpretations of classic roles such as
Cherubino, Niklaus, Suzuki, Rosina,
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Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions, the Schwabacher Award from
San Francisco Opera, and a Career Grant
from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.
Winner of the 1995 Richard Tucker
Foundation Award, American tenor
recording artist. Born in Kansas, the
singer trained with the young artist
programs of San Francisco, Houston,
and Santa Fe Opera companies.
DiDonato’s honors include the
Met’s Beverly Sills Award, the Royal
Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the
Year, citations from Operalia, and the
Richard Tucker, George London, and
Sullivan Foundations.
Paul Groves has established himself as a
leading lyric tenor with the world’s most
prominent opera houses and symphony
orchestras including the Metropolitan
Opera, Opéra de Paris, Royal Opera
Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, New
York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony
Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.
His repertoire encompasses a broad
range of roles from bel canto to lyric and
heroic roles. A favorite artist of the great
conductors, he has recorded for all the
major labels. He also extends his artistry
to recitals with recent performances in
New York, Milan and Amsterdam.
The Grammy Award-winning mezzosoprano Susan Graham is one of the
world’s foremost stars of opera and
recital. An expert in French music, she
holds the French government’s highest
honorary title “Chevalier de la Légion
d’honneur.” Graham is also beloved for
her portrayals of Handel, Mozart and
Strauss trouser roles, and has starred
in three world premiere operas – Jake
Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Tobias Picker’s
An American Tragedy, and John Harbison’s
Great Gatsby. Her extensive discography
includes recitals, complete operas, and
concert performances. She has won the
A critically acclaimed interpreter of the
operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Mozart
and Britten, baritone Keith Phares is
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Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick
Summers and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Her more than 70 recordings have
garnered numerous international
awards. In addition to honorary
doctorates from Yale, Boston University,
Mannes School, and the San Francisco
Conservatory, she was awarded France’s
highest honor in the arts as an officer of
L’ordre des arts et des lettres.
also widely noted for his commitment to
bringing the works of living composers
to the stage. Most recently, he created
the role of Charlie in Jake Heggie’s Three
Decembers opposite Frederica von Stade as
well as the title role in Robert Aldridge’s
Elmer Gantry. Career highlights include
appearances with the Metropolitan
Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston
Grand Opera, Washington National
Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass
Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis,
New York Philharmonic, San Francisco
Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony and
the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The Instrumentalists
Violinist Dawn Harms’ diverse career
has included performing a Haiti
relief benefit with Frederica von Stade
and Take Me Out to the Ballgame at a San
Francisco Giants game, to chamber
music with violinist Nadja SalernoSonnenberg, and playing on her cousin
Tom Waits’ recordings Alice and Blood
Money. A member of the San Francisco
Opera Orchestra and the New Century
Chamber Orchestra, Dawn is also
co-concertmaster with the Oakland
Mezzo-soprano Frederica von
Stade is one of the music world’s most
beloved figures. For four decades, her
extraordinary career has taken her to
the stages of the world’s great concert
halls and opera houses where she has
collaborated with the finest conductors,
including Claudio Abbado, Charles
Dutoit, James Levine, Kurt Masur,
Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, André
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Cellist Emil Miland performs to
international acclaim, and has frequently
collaborated with great singers like
Zheng Cao, Joyce Castle, Susan Graham,
Marilyn Horne, the late Lorraine
Hunt-Lieberson, and Frederica von
Stade at Carnegie Hall. Composers who
have created works especially for him
include Ernst Bacon, David Carlson,
Shinji Eshiima, Lou Harrison, Richard
Hervig, Jake Heggie, Andrew Imbrie,
James Meredith and Dwight Okamura.
The SF Classical Voice described Miland as
“a unique phenomenon. There is just
something about the way he connects the
qualities of style, grace, virtuosity, and
real soul that remind one of no other
cellist.”
East Bay Symphony. She was recently
a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival’s
American Academy of Conducting and
she is co-founder and music director of
the Music at Kirkwood chamber music
festival. Dawn is a member of Stanford
University’s music faculty.
Pianist Jake Heggie is the composer
of the acclaimed operas Moby-Dick, Dead
Man Walking, Three Decembers, To Hell and
Back, For a Look or a Touch, The End of the Affair,
more than 200 art songs, orchestral
and chamber music. His works are
heard internationally and his operas
are among the most produced of any by
an American composer. The recipient
of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other
honors, he is also an accomplished
pianist who collaborates with many of
the world’s great singers in recital and
on recordings. Heggie makes his home
in San Francisco with his husband, the
actor Curt Branom.
www.jakeheggie.com
North America, Australia, Europe and
Israel in chamber music performances
with artists such as Sir Yehudi Menuhin,
Pinchas Zukerman and Rudolf Serkin.
She has also participated at numerous
international festivals including
Marlboro, Savannah and Prussia Cove.
Her professional appointments have
included Assistant Principal Viola of the
Minnesota Orchestra, Principal Viola of
the Australian Chamber Orchestra and
currently, Principal Viola of the
San Francisco Opera.
CarlaMaria Rodrigues, a native
of London, studied at The Yehudi
Menuhin School.She appeared regularly
as soloist and chamber musician in
London’s major concert halls and was
heard on the BBC Radio and Television
network. She has performed throughout
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Frederica von Stade
Recording
PASSING BY
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Dawn Harms, Emil Miland
CarlaMaria Rodrigues,
Jake Heggie
Zheng Cao
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Paul Groves, Jake Heggie, Keith Phares
Frederica von Stade, Joyce DiDonato, Jake Heggie
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Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham
Isabel Bayrakdarian, Jake Heggie
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Jake Heggie
Preston Smith, Susan Graham,
Jake Heggie, Frederica von Stade, Steve Barnett
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The Song Texts
[1] A Lucky Child
text by Terrence McNally
(from the scene At the Statue of Venus)
That love is what I’m seeking, to feel again I
am safe and protected, to wake each morning
filled with hope, and to know I am loved. Oh
God, I was a lucky, lucky child.
At night we dream of love, of loving and being
loved like when we were children; if we were
lucky, as I was. I knew my parents loved me
and I loved them. I felt safe and protected. I
knew that morning would always come. And I
knew I was loved. Oh God, I was a lucky, lucky
child.
Some Times of the Day
poetry by Raymond Carver
[2] The Minuet
Bright mornings.
Days when I want so much I want nothing.
Just this life, and no more. Still,
I hope no one comes along.
But if someone does, I hope it’s her.
The one with the little diamond stars
at the toes of her shoes.
The girl I saw dance the minuet.
That antique dance.
The minuet. She danced that
the way it should be danced.
And the way she wanted.
Sunday night dinners over at Grandma’s, we’d
all be together; playing piano, singing along,
not in tune or too much in measure. Wrestling with cousins, the stories we’d share, the
night Randall kissed me. Then, pretending
to sleep in the car riding home with my father
and mother; wanting to hear the secrets they’d
share. But mostly, just wanting to be carried
upstairs in my father’s arms, then he’d kiss
me and say: “Good night, my little pumpkin.
Sleep soundly, my little love. Angel from
heaven. Star from above.” And I’d sleep.
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[3] Simple
A break in the clouds. The blue
outline of the mountains.
Dark yellow of the fields.
Black river. What am I doing here,
lonely and filled with remorse?
These summer nights.
Even more, I think,
than those other times.
The work finished for the day.
And no one who can reach us now.
Or ever.
I go on casually eating from the bowl
of raspberries. If I were dead,
I remind myself, I wouldn’t
be eating them. It’s not so simple.
It is that simple.
“The Minuet”, “Simple”, and “The Best Time of the
Day” published in ULTRA-MARINE (Vintage Books)
and in ALL OF US, Complete Poems of Raymond Carver
(Knopf & Vintage Books). Copyright Raymond
Carver 1986, 1988; 1989 to the present copyright by
Tess Gallagher. Used by permission.
[4] The Best Time of the Day
Cool summer nights.
Windows open.
Lamps burning.
Fruit in the bowl.
And your head on my shoulder.
These the happiest moments of the day.
Facing Forward/Looking Back
[5] Motherwit
by Charlene Baldridge
If I could bring her back,
Now that I’ve matured;
If we could really talk
Perhaps I’d be reassured
her disapproval was imagined;
the pattern she had in mind
was not perfection.
Next to the early morning hours,
of course. And the time
just before lunch.
And the afternoon, and
early evening hours.
But I do love
I do not discard
Nor do I hate
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The what-I’ve-beens.
They are part of me.
The final trip I seem to be late for?
We’ve just had lunch and she calls to say I
never see you and
Why did you steal my car?
She claims a man named Arthur has moved
into her closet.
The tales she’s invented! I fear she’s demented.
Instead I begin
Reassembling
Fragments I found
After I forgave.
[6] Grounded
by Eugenia Zukerman
They say the nightingale in captivity cannot
survive. And neither will I.
Life was once fine feathers and so much
delight.
Now there’s blood on my wings, no hope for
flight.
Like a bird that flies into the picture window
of time
I’m stunned and none too thrilled to be waiting for a bus.
Why did they take my Honda away without my
accord?
[7] Mother in the Mirror
by Armistead Maupin
She’s got double vision and drives with one
eye shut.
Playing bumpercars on the interstate, she’s a
terror behind the wheel.
I thought she understood. It’s all for her own
good.
I saw my mother in the mirror last night – as
plain as the nose on my face. She’d been
lurking inside me all along, smirking at my
disgrace:
“I’m not one to say ‘I told you so’…“
“The hell you’re not,” I replied. “And I really
don’t need to hear this fifteen years after you
died.”
Blood on my wings. My heart pounds at the
cage of my ribs.
When will it come, the ride I wait for,
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Here and Gone
poetry by A.E. Housman and Vachel Lindsay
“If you’d given me grandchildren like I asked, I might not
have moved into you.”
“Lovely,” I said. “That’s just lovely.” “Nevertheless, it’s true. A mother has to live somewhere. So
we’ll both just have to make do.” “Piss off,” I said. “I don’t want you here. I
have other plans for this face.”
“That’s no way to talk to yourself, dear. Now why don’t
you clean up this place?”
[9] The Farms of Home (Housman)
The farms of home lie lost in even,
I see far off the steeple stand;
West and away from here to heaven
Still is the land.
There if I go no girl will greet me,
No comrade hollo from the hill,
No dog run down the yard to meet me:
The land is still.
[8] Facing Forward
by Jake Heggie
Let it go. Let it out of your heart.
Set it free. Let it be a part set apart
and maybe then you will see
maybe then it will be
a little easier to let go and be free.
And you want to be free, don’t you? Which way are you looking? What are you looking for? Go on. Be strong. There’s so much to be
living for
and so many other people to give to.
Let it go. Let it out of your heart.
Set it free.
And maybe then, baby, you’ll see
yourself.
The land is still by farm and steeple,
And still for me the land may stay:
There I was friends with perished people,
And there lie they.
[10] In Praise of Songs that Die (Lindsay)
Ah, they are passing, passing by,
Wonderful songs, but born to die!
Cries from the infinite human seas,
Waves thrice-winged with harmonies.
Here I stand on a pier in the foam
Seeing the songs to the beach go home,
Dying in sand while the tide flows back,
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As it flowed of old in its fated track.
Oh, hurrying tide that will not hear
Your own foam-children dying near:
Is there no refuge-house of song,
No home, no haven where songs belong?
Oh, precious hymns that come and go!
You perish, and I love you so!
Factory windows are always broken.
Something or other is going wrong.
Something is rotten – I think,
in Denmark.
End of the factory-window song.
[13] In the Morning (Housman)
In the morning, in the morning,
In the happy field of hay,
Oh they looked at one another
By the light of day.
In the blue and silver morning
On the haycock as they lay,
Oh they looked at one another
And they looked away.
[11] Stars (Housman)
Stars, I have seen them fall,
But when they drop and die
No star is lost at all
From all the star-sown sky.
The toil of all that be
Helps not the primal fault;
It rains into the sea,
And still the sea is salt.
[14] Because I Liked You Better (Housman)
Because I liked you better
Than suits a man to say,
It irked you, and I promised
To throw the thought away.
[12] The Factory Window Song (Lindsay)
Factory windows are always broken.
Somebody’s always throwing bricks,
Somebody’s always heaving cinders,
Playing ugly Yahoo tricks.
To put the world between us
We parted, stiff and dry;
‘Good-bye’, said you, ‘forget me.’
‘I will, no fear’, said I.
Factory windows are always broken.
Other windows are let alone.
No one throws through the chapel-window
The bitter, snarling, derisive stone.
If here, where clover whitens
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The dead man’s knoll, you pass,
And no tall flower to meet you
Starts in the trefoiled grass,
I would like to be the only person
in the house who knew: the night outside was
cold.
And would like to listen here to you
and outside to the world and to the woods.
Halt by the headstone naming
The heart no longer stirred.
And say the lad that loved you
Was one that kept his word.
The text of To Say Before Going to Sleep is from
Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems, translated by Albert Ernest Flemming. Copyright ©
1990. Used by permission of Routledge, Inc.
[15] The Half-Moon Westers Low
(Housman)
Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia
poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Jake
Heggie
The half-moon westers low, my love,
And the wind brings up the rain;
And wide apart lie we, my love,
And seas between the twain.
I know not if it rains, my love,
In the land where you do lie;
And oh, so sound you sleep, my love,
You know no more than I.
[17] Ophelia’s Song (Heggie)
The hills are green, my dear one,
and blossoms are filling the air.
The spring is arisen and I am a prisoner
there.
[16] To Say Before Going to Sleep
poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by
Albert Ernest Flemming)
I would like to sing someone to sleep,
have someone to sit by and be with.
I would like to cradle you and softly sing,
be your companion while you sleep or wak.
In this flowery field I’ll lay me
and dream of the open air.
The spring is arisen and I am a prisoner there.
Taste of the honey. Sip of the wine.
Pine for a chalice of gold.
I have a dear one and he is mine.
Thicker than water. Water so cold.
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In this flowery field I’ll lay me
and dream of the open air.
The spring is arisen and I am a prisoner
there.
Not in a lovers’- knot, not in a ring
Worked in such fashion, and the legend plain –
Semper fidelis, where a secret spring
Kennels a drop of mischief for the brain:
Love in the open hand, no thing but that,
Ungemmed, unhidden, wishing not to hurt,
As one should bring you cowslips in a hat
Swung from the hand, or apples in her skirt,
I bring you, calling out as children do:
“Look what I have! – And these are all for
you.”
[18] Women Have Loved Before (Millay)
Women have loved before as I love now;
At least, in lively chronicles of the past Of Irish waters by a Cornish prow
Or Trojan waters by a Spartan mast
Much to their cost invaded – here and there,
Hunting the amorous line, skimming the rest,
I find some woman bearing as I bear
Love like a burning city in the breast.
I think however that of all alive
I only in such utter, ancient way
Do suffer love; in me alone survive
The unregenerate passions of a day
When treacherous queens, with death upon
the tread,
Heedless and willful, took their knights to
bed.
[20] Spring (Millay)
To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
[19] Not In A Silver Casket (Millay)
Not in a silver casket cool with pearls
Or rich with red corundum or with blue,
Locked, and the key withheld, as other girls
Have given their loves, I give my love to you;
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It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing
flowers.
Poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay. All rights reserved.
Copyright 1921, 1931, 1948, 1958 by Edna St.
Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted by
permission of Elizabeth Barnett, Literary Executor,
The Millay Society.
[21] Final Monologue from Master Class
by Terrence McNally (from the play Master Class)
You must know what you want to do in life,
you must decide, for we cannot do everything.
Do not think singing is an easy career. It is a
lifetime’s work; it does not stop here. Whether
I continue singing or not doesn’t matter.
Besides, it’s all there in the recordings. What
matters is that you use whatever you have
learned wisely. Think of the expression of the
words, of good diction, and of your own deep
feelings. The only thanks I ask is that you sing
properly and honestly. If you do this, I will
feel repaid.
Well, that’s that.
If I have seemed harsh, it is because I have
been harsh with myself. I’m not good with
words, but I have tried to reach you. To communicate something of what I feel about what
we do as artists, as musicians and as human
beings. The sun will not fall down from the
sky if there are no more Traviatas. The world
can and will go on without us but I have to
think that we have made the world a better
place. That we have left it richer, wiser than
had we not chosen the way of art. The older I
get, the less I know, but I am certain that what
we do matters. If I didn’t believe that.
© 1995 by Terrence McNally. Used by kind
permission of the author.
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