Music by: Ricky Ian Gordon
Libretto by: William F. Hoffman
Based p the play by: Sylvia Regan
Duration: 150 mins
Originally Commissioned and premiered by Cincinnati Opera, 2015
Based on Sylvia Regan’s play and on parallels with the composer’s own family, Morning Star is a deeply touching character piece about life among Jewish immigrants in New York City’s Lower East Side, where the family must learn how to adapt to the country’s ever-changing landscape. Hope blossoms and is dashed as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, World War I, and the Great Depression lead to death, divorce, and despair. Through it all, William M. Hoffman’s colorful libretto and Ricky Ian Gordon’s engaging score maintain charming threads of love and optimism, comedy amid tragedy, and luscious sonorities featuring a large cast of singers – in English, Yiddish, Italian, and Haitian French..
FORCES
Singers:
4 Sopranos
3 Mezzo-sopranos
3 Tenors, 2 Baritones
1 Bass-Baritone
1 Boy (13
yrs. old, 1 spoken role)
Optional Chorus
Orchestra:
2(2 dbl. Picc.) 1(dbl. E.H.) 3(3=B.Cl., dbl. Cl.) - 2 2 2(B.Tbn.) 0; Timp. 2Perc. Pno/Cel. Str.
Reviews:
Gordon’s score is keenly attentive to the text. . . .His vocal writing is fluid and natural, and there is a bright, fresh sound to all the music.
-Eric C. Simpson, New York Classical Review
The music sits comfortably on Hoffman’s sharply observed libretto, slyly peppered with Yiddishisms, Sondheimesque in its witty use of language, yet entirely Hoffman’s own in its ability to evoke the rhythms of working-class life and death.
-John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
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