String Quartet (1987) now at IMSLP

 

I've uploaded another piece to IMSLP. It's a String Quartet. It's Creative Commons, so free to download and perform. As I mentioned in the post about the Fanfare for Orchestral Brass already up at IMSLP, I'm an opera composer and songwriter now and will not be going back to write pure instrumental music. There was still good stuff along the road, so why not share it? 

I urge composers to make long term plans for their work and not trust it alone to fate, family, or publishers. 

Notes on Viardot piano vocal score

 

Notes on Viardot, or in this image, Viardot on notes

My opera, NOTES ON VIARDOT, has its premiere in April 2024 at the University of South Dakota, which commissioned it. A perusal version is now available of the piano-vocal score for download. Thanks to Florida Grand Opera, Taos Opera Institute, and Missouri State University, for the workshop/readings.

The first act is about a half hour and the second/third acts combined are about 45-50 minutes. The orchestration is 1/1(1)/1/1 0/1/0/0 percussion, keyboard and strings orchestration. The first act will be available on its own. I'm proud to have written a full length opera that takes place on a unit set--projections desirable in one spot!

A homage to Pauline Viardot, NOTES makes lively and frequent use of pastiche, quoting over twenty works by the likes of Chopin, Gluck, Saint-Saens, Clara Schumann, Rossini, Mozart, Donizetti, and several pieces by Pauline Viardot herself. Think of it as a "jukebox" opera. I envision the work allowing lots of cross curricular programming, both within music, but also literature, art, and European history.

It is 1905 and Pauline has granted an interview to a reporter. She talks about her famous singing family, her debut and rise, her many famous collaborations, her salons, and finally--and reluctantly--about her personal life. Act I is about her childhood, her debut, and rise to stardom. Act II covers her many collaborations, including Berlioz and Saint-Saens. Clara Schumann and Charles Dickens make appearances. In Act III, she finally opens up about her personal life and relationships with her husband Louis and Ivan Turgenev. 

If you have ten minutes, here are four short excerpts:

Act I “Characters” Sung by the Young Artists at Florida Grand Opera (PV 6-11) 2:13.

This will give you an idea of the extensive use of pastiche in the opera

Act II “Calling Cards” sung by Emily Owings at Missouri State University. Emily sang Pauline at the reading at Missouri State University. Solo version of a duet, giving you the breadth of Pauline's influence in her day.

Act II “Chere madame Viardot” Turgenev writes to Pauline from Russia. Audio Sung by Peter Lake  (PV 87-93) 3:11 Aria has been adapted for solo voice

Act III “Hermann and Dorothea” duet for Younger Pauline and Younger Turgenev (PV 153-160)

(ends at 3:35) Performed by Sophia Vidali and Colin Clark Bracewell at Taos Opera Institute. 

 

Fanfare (1991) now over at IMSLP

 

Most composers specialize and I am no exception. That specialization usually doesn't occur until a bit later. Our training doesn't encourage us to specialize too soon--after all we need to learn how to write in lots of different styles and with different combinations of instruments before we can tell what really ignites our passion to write. In my case, by the mid 1990s I realized that I really needed my music to go with words. So I have stopped writing instrumental music. 

The question then, is what to do with these other things, things for which, frankly, I have no reputation? My solution is going to be to make most of my non-vocal works available freely for download and performance. I have started here by uploading the score and parts to my 1991 Fanfare at IMSLP. This piece even got a nice review back then. So if you happen on this blog, feel free to download and perform this! 

Back in '91 I foolishly wrote this piece in B major, which isn't the greatest key for brass. Here it is, now living happily in B flat, a classic key for brass.

Dad's Old manuscripts

 

Most of you never met my father, James Christopher Ching, who died right after I graduated from college. He was a professor of what now would be called communications, but was called speech back then. Although he had some early successes, his career stalled and he wrote a couple of books that didn't get published. He did write a play, AWEOWEO, that was produced by the theater company at Hamline University where he worked. 

These manuscripts have worked their way into my storage room and I have been loathe to throw them out. But last week I digitized them and uploaded them, so the typescripts will make their way to the waste management system here where they will be burned to help produce power. 

AWEOWEO is about the overthrow of King David Kalakaua, the last monarch of Hawaii. And the other manuscript, THE MERRY MONARCH, is a biography of Kalakaua. If anyone happens to come upon this blog post and wants to download them and have a look, please feel free. My father was born and raised in Hawaii and passionate about the fate of the islands and their people.

Another unpublished manuscript is called CONFRONTATION:A RHETORIC OF CRISIS. My father taught public speaking and coauthored a textbook about it. The book is about the rhetoric used in the social protest movements from the mid fifties through the early seventies. 

Taos Opera Institute (2023)

 

Taos Opera Institute has a new director, Mark Craig. He has been there a couple years, staging the final showcase and helping the founders, Mary Jane Johnson and Linda Poetschke. I have been there for two productions of Speed Dating Tonight! and one of RSBE. The students there have regular voice lessons and coachings, with the requirement of performing a new song or aria every week in Italian, German, French, or English. 

Now officially their composer-in-residence, I was fortunate that they did a staged workshop of some of NOTES ON VIARDOT.

pictured: Colin Clark-Bracewell, Sophia Vidali, Marjorie Sheaff, 

and Shaul Leket-Mor as the younger Ivan Turgenev, younger Pauline, 

and older Pauline and older Turgenev.

 

This included a completed draft of the first act (previously read on book at Florida Grand Opera) and some new sections of the final act. The opera is loosely inspired by an interview Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) gave late in her life in the early 20th century. In the first act Pauline recalls her early life touring with the family's opera troupe; her debut in Brussels; her friend, mentor, and admirer Georges Sand; and her triumphant European tours. The second act (not done yet!) will focus on her midcareer, her salons, and her family life, including a filtered version of her relationship with her friend Turgenev, who often lived nearby and eventually moved in with Pauline and Louis Viardot. Both men died in 1883. Finally, in the last act, the reporter asks her to explain the relationship between the three of them. Annoyed, she dismisses the reporter, and in the last act will recall Ivan and Louis with love, fondness, and loss. 

The premiere of NOTES ON VIARDOT is April 2024 at University of South Dakota-Vermillion.

22-23 Thank yous

 

As the 2022-23 season comes to a close, I want to thank the following places and people for performing my work--Cal State Northridge, Butler University, Iowa State University, Trinity University, Florida State University, University of Connecticut, University of Central Florida, Keene State, Vanderbilt University, Midwestern State University, Boise State University, Eastern Michigan University,  University of Lynchburg, Whitworth University, Montclair State University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Taos Opera Institute, Shreveport Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera, L'Arietta Productions, Amarillo Opera, and Florida Grand Opera. Special thanks to Savannah Voice Festival, Fargo Moorhead Opera, and Amarillo Opera for premieres and to ECS for a new publication. Special thanks to this year's lyrical collaborators Reg Huston and Steve Aiken; and thanks to producer and tenor David Hamilton for over twenty years of collaborations. 

A short description of all my operas

A list of my operas, and a little bit about them. I'm working on making this list more interactive. Perusal scores are available for some of these on the right hand side of this blog. 

Speed Dating Tonight! (2013) is my most popular work with over 130 productions on the books from 2013-2024. It's an imaginary speed dating night at a bar. It is flexible--I call it a "New Numbers Opera," with each performer getting a little solo to talk about their character. Most of the dates are not gendered and available in a variety of ranges. SpDT! can be as short as 30 minutes or a full length evening depending on how many dates you want to include. Commissioned by Janiec Opera.

Buoso's Ghost (1996) is a sequel to Gianni Schicchi. It has the same cast and set, so it makes for a very practical, fun evening. Buoso is easier than Schicchi too, being in English. The orchestration matches the reduced version of Schicchi (2/1/2/1/2/2/1/0) Premiered at Opera Memphis and Pittsburgh Opera Center. Recently done at Florida Grand Opera. Buoso is published by EC Schirmer.

Notes on Viardot (2024) is a work in progress about the life of Pauline Viardot. The premiere is in Spring 2024 at University of South Dakota-Vermillion, which commissioned it. The opera makes extensive use of quotation from what she sang as well as her own compositions. About 70-75 minutes long, in three acts, with one intermission. The first act will work separately as an introduction to her life. As I've been saying, this opera is so curricular, you could give a test about it. 

RSBE is a structured like Speed Dating Tonight! but is deeper and has a bit more ensemble singing. It was premiered and commissioned by University of Alabama. Like Speed Dating the casting is very flexible and usually not gendered. Don't get thrown off by the great video from the premiere. This opera can be done very simply such as in this version at Amarillo Opera.

Hazel Miner is a new project, a thirty minute work for Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD. The libretto is by Marla Fogderud and is about a terrible snowstorm in 1920. The opera will premiere in April 2025. The demo playlist is here and the perusal score is in the folder. It is much darker than the usual Michael Ching opera. 15-year-old Hazel saves her two younger siblings in a late winter snowstorm in North Dakota.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (2011) was premiered as a completely a cappella opera, but thanks to Towson University, it's available with a small orchestration which keeps everybody in tune. There's still "voicestra" in the pit. All the text is Shakespeare's and, frankly, it's easier to understand than the classic Britten. A great recording is available of the original version. Here's an article about Towson's preparation.

Thrivers is an opera for high school performers about teen depression. Written for the Palm Springs Opera Guild, the subject was suggested by the students themselves.

Dinner 4 3 is a wicked little three-some opera written for Fargo Moorhead Opera. Adult content, although nothing over the top. The original version on idagio is spectacular! Written with Deborah Brevoort.

Leo is a 10 minute opera about a man who is angry with is cat. It was commissioned by the old Texas Opera Theater in the '80s and toured by them, but is still very viable. 

Three Pigs Remix was written for the Opera Memphis touring/outreach quartet. S/A/T/B with piano. Irreverent and amusing. For elementary grades. Toured for two seasons by Fort Worth Opera cause they loved it so much. 

Alice and Anna is actually two one act operas, Alice Ryley and Anna Hunter. They are each about famous women in Savannah. Alice is dark and sad; Anna, light and witty. Commissioned by Savannah Voice Festival and premiered together in 2022.

Slaying the Dragon sounds like a joke set up--a rabbi and his wife make friends with the grand dragon of the KKK. A serious opera, written with Ellen Frankel, that I'd love to see up again. Here's a brief clip.

Birthday Clown is a short opera about a clown who is tired of performing for birthday parties. The guest of honor cheers him up considerably and a drone makes a flying appearance. Written for Savannah Voice Festival.

Corps of Discovery commemorates the Lewis and Clark expedition. There is a grand opera, a smaller version, and a mini version. Written with Hugh Moffatt. Commissioned by the University of Missouri. Here's a sample. 

Eight Woods and a Van is a bio-opera about the American painter Grant Wood and uses a series of his pictures as the inspiration. Commissioned by Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. Here's a sample.

Faith is a one act "science fiction romance" based on a story by James Patrick Kelly. It was actually performed at Worldcon. (You'll be impressed if you know what that is.)

Completing the Picture is a short S/A/T/B opera that celebrates the Chinese who helped complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Written for Utah Opera.

King of the Clouds is an S/A/T/B Piano opera about social issues for teen audiences. Commissioned in the 90s by Dayton Opera. Still very viable! Written with Hugh Moffatt.

Out of the Rain uses some of the same characters as King of the Clouds and was written a few years later. It is about the AIDS epidemic. Clouds and Rain can be done together. Commissioned by OperaDelaware. Also written with Hugh Moffatt. Audio link.

A Royal Feast, is a work in progress. It's a one act sequel to Rossini's La Cenerentola. Written with a team of middle school advisors from Savannah, the opera puts the magic and creatures back in to Cinderella.

__________________________________________________________________________

By length and type (some of these operas are listed in more than one category depending on how they are used)

Full length operas:

Corps of Discovery, Alice and Anna (see one acts), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Notes on Viardot, Speed Dating Tonight! Slaying the Dragon, King of the Clouds and Out of the Rain (see one acts), RSBE

One Act Operas

Faith, Eight Woods and a Van, Thrivers, King of the Clouds, Out of the Rain, Three Pigs Remix, Buoso's Ghost, Alice Ryley, Anna Hunter, Speed Dating Tonight!, A Royal Feast, RSBE, Hazel Miner

Flexibly structured operas "New numbers opera"

Speed Dating Tonight!, RSBE

In between

Birthday Clown

Minioperas

Leo, Dinner 4 3, Completing the Picture

School shows--all shows except A Royal Feast are S/A/T/B piano. Feast is larger. Thrivers is for teen performers

Three Pigs Remix, King of the Clouds, Out of the Rain, Completing the Picture, A Royal Feast, Thrivers

Arrangements and Derangements

 

EC Schirmer has just released my ARRANGEMENTS AND DERANGEMENTS, a song cycle for soprano, cello, and piano based on five Schubert songs, including Nacht und Träume, Sei mir gegrüßt, Die Männer sind méchant, DIE Forelle! and Rastlose Liebe.

The cycle was originally commissioned by Allison Charney and the ARK trio. Their recording of four 

of the songs is available from Navona. 

You can see the two "derangements." Sei mir gegrüßt...

and here is DIE Forelle!

The other three are more respectful "arrangements."

Right now these are available together or separately for soprano, but we are planning on making some of them available in other key ranges.

ALICE AND ANNA

ALICE RYLEY (2015) and ANNA HUNTER (2017) are my two operas set in Savannah. Both were written while I was composer-in-residence at Savannah Voice Festival. Both of these pieces were workshopped and premiered separately and then performed together in 2022. They are now available separately or together. ALICE is over fifty minutes; ANNA is around 40. 

Alice is a dark ghost story lifted from a few paragraphs from the annals of Georgia. An indentured Irish servant in the early days of the colony, she is accused of murdering her master. When they discover she is pregnant, they allow her to have her baby and then hang her a few weeks later. A guilty conscience is one of the reasons that we imagine ghosts, and that is the case for Savannah here. The legend is that if you encounter a young woman asking "Have you seen my baby?" that's Alice. 

Anna Hunter is the story of how a group of women in Savannah kept the city from modernizing itself to the point of losing its historic character in the mid 20th century. After the demolition of the city market, Anna energizes a group to save the historic Davenport house. Anna is a comedy, as light as Alice is dark. 

ALICE RYLEY (about 50 minutes)

Soundcloud Playlist and Perusal score (Direct Download)

Tour guide, (speaking), Jailed Alice (M), Young Alice (S), Mary (M or S), A Sailor/Edward Canon/William Wise/The Recorder (T-can be divided), Richard White (B). Ensemble.

Orchestration: Flute, Drums, String Quintet, Piano. (There is also a Vln/Vc/Piano version)

ANNA HUNTER (about 40 minutes)

Soundcloud Playlist and Perusal score (Direct Download)

Anna (M or S), Louise (M), Mrs. Davenport (S), Mr. Davenport (T), Mr. Progress (B), Quortina (M or S, should be African American, separate keys available), Lucy (M), Jane (S or M), Kass (M or S), Ensemble. 

Orchestration: Flute, Drums, String Quintet, Piano.

I'm very grateful for to Maria and Sherrill and SVF for commissioning these two operas! 

Notes on Viardot, a work in progress.

Characters, opening scene

Last month while I was in Miami doing GIANNI SCHICCHI and BUOSO'S GHOST, the Florida Grand Opera Studio read most of the first act of my work-in-progress, NOTES ON VIARDOT. NOTES is about the life of the great 19th century diva and composer, Pauline Viardot. The opera is commissioned and will premiere at University of South Dakota-Vermillion in the Spring of 2024. 

The youtube link is to the first scene "Characters." In it, an older Pauline recalls her first memories--being brought to the theater to watch her family perform. It is inspired by an interview and article in Le Gaulois in 1905. 

In all, there are five videos linked together in a playlist. The second video is about the family's misadventure in Mexico where they were held up by bandits on the way to Veracruz. The third video is about her voice lessons with her father. The fourth describes her debut in Brussels and her encounter with the critic Alfred de Musset. The final video recalls her friendship with the novelist Georges Sand and her need to tour to circumvent Parisian rivals. 

This first act is a tribute to singers who must navigate critics, patrons, and colleagues in every era. What's unusual about it is (I would say) is that the score quotes many works by Viardot and others as part of the storytelling. Not being subtle about those quotations seems like an important device to draw you in and to make you realize how important she was and is to the history of opera. The act will end with Pauline in Russia where she meets the great love of her life, Ivan Turgenev. 

You can also follow along with the libretto, but since I've subtitled the videos, you probably don't have to. 

I'm grateful to the Florida Grand Opera and their studio artists for doing such a great job.

 

Dinner 4 3 (full info)

Last month, my short opera DINNER 4 3 got its first live performance in the US. Written with Deborah Brevoort, the show is part of the Tales from a Safe Distance project of the Decameron Opera Coalition. You can stream the opera on idagio, but it's behind a paywall. The original audio (and it is a really nice recording! of the version with two tenors) is available on soundcloud.

The cast for this under fifteen minute opera is:    Wife (M or S), Husband (T or B), and Lover (T). The Husband Versions have some different vocal lines. It is available with piano accompaniment, or with the original orchestration--violin, bassoon, piano, with optional sax and drums at the end. The plot, which is loosely based on a story from the Decameron, is simple--wife and husband have made arrangements to have a fling, with the same man. 

Here's the direct download link for the perusal score (baritone version).

Here is the archival video of the Fargo Moorhead opera production in February 2023.

Thanks also to L'arietta productions, which did the opera live in Singapore in December of 2022. Thanks to FM Opera for commissioning the original version and then doing it live!.

If you'd like to do DINNER 4 3, please contact me!

David Hamilton

David Hamilton, my colleague, tenor, teacher, and Artistic and General Director of Fargo-Moorhead Opera, is retiring. I am so grateful to him for our many collaborations! He sang in productions in my Opera Memphis days and brought me to Fargo several times to conduct. Even more important for me, he worked with me consistently as a composer. Back in 2007, he put together a group to tour CORPS OF DISCOVERY, my opera with librettist Hugh Moffatt about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I distinctly remember a traffic jam in the Theodore Roosevelt national park caused by buffalo and a host on the Missouri river who suggested I sleep under the stars that night by the river. (I took his suggestion.)

More recently, FM Opera has done a couple of productions of SPEED DATING TONIGHT! and commissioned some new dates, including this one which is lifted from David's life. 

Roger, I have news from Speed Dating Tonight! starring Holly Janz

During the pandemic FM Opera participated in the Decameron Opera Coalition, a consortium of opera companies that produced short online projects, including Dinner 4 3 (written with Deborah Brevoort) and This Perfect Gift (written with Reg Huston). 

David with Shana Blake Hill at an FM Opera fundraiser at the old Sarello's restaurant.

David with Stella Zambalis during a production of Hansel and Gretel at FM Opera

I'm about to go up to Fargo to conduct his last production at FM Opera, LA BOHEME. Running a regional opera company for 25 years is a huge accomplishment. The constant treadmill of fundraising is stressful. I can only imagine what it was like to keep a company afloat during the pandemic and divisive political environment of the past years. So Bravo to David and best wishes to David and Bernie in Fargo and beyond. 

  

Errata

 

I've been fortunate to conduct my opera BUOSO'S GHOST several times. The last time I got to do it, at OperaDelaware, was the first time since it was cleaned up and beautifully rereleased by EC Schirmer. Despite that, there's still an errata list of about 65 items after last week's Florida Grand Opera production. Fortunately, a good percentage of these are getting into cautionary accidentals and very small layout issues, and discrepancies with the piano vocal score. Still, I wouldn't be surprised that I still find some things the next time I do it!

  

Always nice to get a good review...

 

By Larry Budman from South Florida Classical Music Review

Savannah Voice Festival interview on Instagram

 Here's a link to an Instagram interview for Savannah Voice Festival about composing for voice. It was conducted by Jorge Parodi, SVF's artistic director, with me and fellow composer and Iowan, Jodi Goble. It's part of the Voices of the Festival interview series.

Buoso in Miami

It's thrilling to be in Miami to work on GIANNI SCHICCHI and BUOSO'S GHOST. Here's a promo shot of the cast. Photo by Eric Joannes.