America Tropical (Libretto)
by David Conte
Choir - Sheet Music

Opera in 1 Act for mixed voices

SKU: EC.7163

Composed by David Conte. One Act/Chamber Opera. 21st Century. Libretto. E.C. Schirmer Publishing #7163. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.7163).

Text: Oliver Mayer.

Libretto: Written by Oliver Mayer Synopsis: In an act of creation that is both galvanizing and dangerous, the Mexican artist Siqueiros creates a mural for the 1932 Olympic Games. This work places a mirror up to the city of Los Angeles, reflecting both its past and future- from its founding in 1781 by a band of Pobladores from Mexico, to its near self-destruction in the riots of 1992. Through the interconnected stories of original city founder Moreno and George Holliday, who witnessed the savage beating of Rodney King (just as Siqueiros is witness with his paint brush), we see and feel the crises of a city continually caught between its lofty goals and coarse realities. Whitewashed in 1932, Siqueiros' painted mural image of the Crucified India refuses to stay erased and ghosts through, descending from the cross to offer redemption and blessings to Angelinos across the centuries. The India exists alongside the Queen of the Angels (namesake of the City) as a witness to injustice, and as a totem of the hopes and dreams of its people- signifying more than Siqueiros could have dreamed possible. Duration: ~ 60 Minutes Roles: Siqueiros, painter of the mural America Tropical Baritone Lara, Pobladores leader/worker Tenor Maria Soledad, Mexican peasant woman, wife of Moreno Soprano Moreno, Pobladores/worker/husband of Maris Tenor Holliday/Mesa, plumber/pobladoro/worker (filmed the beating of Rodney King) Bass-Baritone Camero, Pobladoro/worker Baritone Navarro, Poblador/worker Bass-Baritone The India, the crucified figure at the center of the mural America Tropical Soprano Premier: April 2007, Thick Description, San Francisco Instrumentation Notes: Flute, B-flat Clarinet (doubling A Clarinet & Bass Clarinet), Violin, Violoncello, Double Bass & Piano Reviews: Conte (whose beautiful, ghostly desert opera Firebird Motel was commissioned and produced by Thick Description) has fashioned a score featuring serrated melody lines and lush choral harmonies to augment the work's three centuries, succinctly blended in Mayer's libretto. The music moves determinedly forward through alternately agitated, wistful, angelic, and angry passages... -Robert Avila, THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA GUARDIAN Conte's score, with its hints of George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, and the chamber music of Dmitri Shostakovich, is as colorful as anything painted by Siqueiros. The composer's use of glittering flute scales... (enthralls) the listener with its beauty... -Chloe Veltman, SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY   .