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Synopsis
My Undying Love: An Amusement is just that—an amusement. A one hour
chamber opera with plenty of action, it opens in “Real-time” with a
mother and daughter separated by two spotlights, holding forth on their
opinions about dolls and stuffed animals. Tempers flare as the mother
threatens to throw all of the girl’s toys out. The mother exits in a
huff, and the girl storms upstage to begin her elaborate fantasy play
with a vengeance. The “Play-time” setting is a clearing inside a forest.
Here, the girl’s character is called Girl, and the mother is present
(in the Girl’s play) as the Witch. A Bear and a Robin appear
(human-sized), and there are two rustics; the Milkmaid and the Goatherd.
The games begin: the Witch spies on the Girl, the Girl and the Bear
practice their dying routine, and the Witch is disturbed by the Girl’s
friendship with the Bear. She is jealous. The rustics look for a place
to declare their undying love to each other, and then split up when they
hear the Witch’s pessimistic prophecy about their prospects for true
love. She’s just playing with them! The Witch poisons Bear’s
blackberries, a mock funeral in New Orleans style follows, the Bear
wakes up and plays a nasty practical joke on the Witch, who is currently
busy trying to seduce the Robin, an inveterate family man (bird).
Everyone
gangs up on the Witch and they force an apology out of her, but she
really doesn’t mean it. There is finally a sort of reconciliation that
takes place, and the Rustics do get back together. All kinds of undying
love take place; friendship, mother/daughter, and romantic love. The
opera closes in “Real time” as the mother and girl strike a truce. There
is now a certain amount of affection between them, which feels poignant
and joyful. The tone of the opera is incredibly silly, touching but not
sentimental. The characters are exaggerated, yet plain-spoken. The
music is lyric, and syncopated; an old-time jazz flavor surfaces often.
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Title Information
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Approximate Runtime (hh:mm)
1:09
Number of Acts
1
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