The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, David Lang

Work Information

David Lang : The Difficulty of Crossing a Field

Publisher	Red Poppy
Category	Opera and Music Theatre
Sub-Category	Chamber Opera
Year Composed	1999
Duration	1 Hour, 15 Minutes
Solo Voice(s)	Soprano, Mezzo soprano, Tenor, Baritone, Bass
Chorus	small choir
Orchestration	2vn, va, vc
Languages	English
Availability	Hire Explain this...

Programme Note

Digital perusal score available from ScoresOnDemand

Cast List:
   MRS. WILLIAMSON: Mezzo-soprano
   MR. WILLIAMSON / MAGISTRATE: Spoken
   WILLIAMSON GIRL: Soprano
   BOY SAM: Tenor
   ARMOUR WREN / ANDREW: Bass

   Chorus of slaves, from which are drawn:
   VIRGINIA CREEPER: Soprano
   OLD WOMAN: Contralto

downloadable brochure
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Note:
A slave owner in the pre-civil war American South walks across his field and disappears, in plain view of his family, his neighbors and his slaves, forever altering the relationships among them. Everyone around him has his or her own sharp view of what that disappearance means, of why it had to happen, and of what will happen now that there is a "hole" where a man used to be. Based on a one page story by the writer Ambrose Bierce, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field was commissioned by Carey Perloff and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. It was intended to cross between opera and theater worlds, mixing arias with spoken text, emotional melodies with intense drama. It is written for 5 principals and a chorus of 6 or more slaves, and the accompaniment is for string quartet on stage, both as the "orchestra" and as part of the set.

The original production was 22-24 March 2002 at the Theater Artaud in San Francisco, starring Julia Migenes as the wife of the missing planter and 2004 Tony-award winning singer Anika Noni Rose as the leader of the slave chorus, with music performed onstage by the Kronos Quartet.

Reviews

Based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, “Field” features music by David Lang (who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for “The Little Match Girl Passion” and libretto by acclaimed experimental playwright Mac Wellman.

It weaves a bizarre tale of Mr. Williamson, an Alabama plantation owner, who walks across a field in 1854 only to vanish into thin air. Over the next 75 minutes or so, we hear from his family, neighbors and slaves, as they contemplate the strange disappearance — an “erasure” that is impossible to explain.

Just as the story refuses to conform to any traditional structure, so does the music.

“Field” is described as a contemporary opera/theater hybrid, incorporating compelling scenes of spoken drama within Lang’s haunting score. Richly repetitive and often discordant, rhythms and melodies unfold slowly, only to circle back upon themselves in an almost hypnotic fashion.
Amy Stumpfl , The Tennessean, 08/11/2012
The Difficulty of Crossing a Field is a major contribution to American Musical Theater.... This astonishing work must not be allowed to vanish into thin air. I know I can't get it out of my head.
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

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