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Programme Note

Premiere:

While Yip Harburg is world famous for his brilliant lyrics to such musicals as Finian’s Rainbow the The Wizard of Oz, and such standards as Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? He has also authored several volumes of poems. Irreverent Heart comes from More Rhymes for the Irreverent, and while many of them are wry, pixilated, or satirical, this one, suggested to me by my former high-school teacher and dear friend, Bella Tillis (who was also a dear friend of Harburg) sings in the voice of an adult still eager to love, but no stranger to heartbreak.

— John Corigliano