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SALT is a 25-minute monodrama for alto solo, amplified cello and electronics. This work was commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts and received its world premiere, as part of the evening-length multimedia work Elsewhere, in 2012, directed by Robert Woodruff with video by Peter Nigrini, produced by Beth Morrison Projects. SALT was composed specifically for cellist Maya Beiser and vocalist Helga Davis.
SALT's libretto, by Erin Cressida-Wilson, is a dramatic re-telling of the biblical story of Lot's Wife, who, while fleeing Sodom with her family, turns around to survey the destruction of her home against God's will. As punishment she is turned into a pillar of salt for eternity. The alto soloist (Lot's Wife) sings a surreal, fragmented narrative that recounts her world before, during and after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Part 1 she sings a dreamy, sexy introduction to the story. In Part 2 she remembers her life with Lot before they were forced out of their home. Part 3 begins with a description of the moment she was thrown out of Sodom with her family, delivered in the manner of a breathless police report, a frantic recounting of a crime. The voice of Lot's Wife is electronically multiplied and she sings with several pre-recorded version of herself, adding to the frenetic quality of this section. The movement concludes with the moment that she was turned into a pillar of salt, speculating on the many complicated reasons she may have turned around. Did she look back because of curiosity? In terror? Did she secretly want to be frozen forever looking out over her home? Part 4 is a dialogue across centuries between Lot's Wife and a female journalist in 2012. The journalist, represented by cellist Maya Beiser's pre-recorded voice, interviews Lot's Wife, asking "What did you do in prison?" and concluding with a duet between the two women. Part 5 is a return to the dreamy material of Part 1, and this time the alto soloist lip-synchs her part to a pre-recorded track. The singer sometimes gets "stuck" on words, falling out of synch with her own voice and appearing to hold notes longer than humanly possible. The vocal track has been electronically manipulated to create a ghostly, distant effect, since Lot's Wife is not only frozen in a pillar of salt but is now speaking to us from across the centuries. Suspended forever between life and death, Lot's Wife spins a moving and complex tale out of a deceptively simple storyline, and Cressida-Wilson has created an unconventional and provocative take on this extraordinary tale.
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