Black River, A Wisconsin Idyll (Piano/Vocal Score)
by Conrad Susa
Choir - Sheet Music

Grand opera in 3 Acts and a Prologue for mixed voices (2 2 2 2 - 4 2 2 0 - T+P(2) - Kybd(2) - H - Str)

SKU: EC.4206

Composed by Conrad Susa. Full Length Opera. Piano/vocal score. E.C. Schirmer Publishing #4206. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.4206).

UPC: 600313442063. Text: Richard Street, Conrad Susa.

Libretto:
Written by Richard Street and Conrad Susa

Synopsis:
Grand Opera in 3 Acts with a Prologue. The opera presents vignettes relating the stories of three women, their lives, and their losses at the foot of the Black River. Clara, preoccupied with the memory of her infant son's death by drowning in the Black River 12 years earlier, sews a quilt and dulls her despair with the aid of a cocaine-based medicine. Lucy, her step-daughter, is engaged to marry a man she does not love. Pauline, living in the state mental hospital, mourns the passing of her career as an opera singer and the estranged relationship between herself and her son. Soon after Lucy and Ben are married, Ben dies, leaving Lucy, who has just begun to truly love her husband, alone and pregnant. Their wedding is transformed into a funeral. Pauline reconciles with her son and leaves the hospital and Black River Falls forever. Lucy also departs, in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere. Clara, having finished her quilt, takes it to the banks of the river, saturates it with kerosene, and sets it and her body on fire.

Roles:
CLARA GRAY, a housewife turning 40	Mezzo-Soprano
LUCY GRAY HOLLAND, Clara's 18-year old stepdaughter	Soprano
PAULINE L'ALLEMAND, an opera singer past her prime	Soprano
REVERAND WOODS, a Lutheran pastor	Tenor
HORACE GRAY, Clara's husband, Lucy's father/JACOB SPAULDING, founding settler of Black River Falls	Bass-Baritone
BEN HOLLAND, Lucy's late husband, 18 years old	Baritone
COLONEL C.C. POPE, Civil War veteran/Square Dance Caller	Tenor
P.H. HOWELL, old codger, friend of Pope's	Tenor
HANNAH COLE, Temperance League leader	Mezzo-Soprano
HERR 6 3/4, character in Pauline's operetta/HENRI L'ALLEMAND, Pauline's husband/EDGAR L'ALLEMAND, Pauline's teen-age son	Baritone
HERR DREI, character in Pauline's operetta/LEO DELIBES, Parisien composer	Tenor
DOCTOR KROHN, physician at Mendota State Hospital/DUDLEY GRAY, Horace's father	Baritone
MISS DOROTHY SNITE, spinster teacher/MRS. DUDLEY GRAY, Horace's mother	Mezzo-Soprano
HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL	Tenor
FRANK HOLAND, Ben's merchant father	Tenor
MRS. FRANK HOLLAND, Ben's mother	Mute
BARTENDER	Baritone
THOMAS WOOD, a logger	Tenor
ANDREW WOOD, his brother	Baritone
ONSTAGE CHORUS (supplemented off-stage)	SSAATTBB