OPERATIC TRILOGY
Les Dames à trois…et piano
Music & Libretto by Philip Seward
I. Piano Detective
II. Piano Princess
III. …And Piano Make Three
IV. Epilogue
Synopsis
Three singers, three one-acts and a piano make up this trilogy of comedies. Piano Detective starts the evening with a theatrical take on film noire. Written for mezzo-soprano Natalie Arduino, the detective story features cabaret singer, Cadee Bad, who is in search of a stolen cadence. She sets up a meeting with Detective Dick along New York City’s harbor at night to hire him to help her. Unable to resist a dame in distress, the detective agrees to help as the two sort out who is manipulating whom.
Piano Princess continues the evening as a princess fairytale handyman in a run-down shop in a back corner of the dungeon of the castle in Central Park. The arrogant princess, written for soprano Amy Becker, demands he weave a fairytale for her alone. Left to conjure the tale, he recounts how the curse which led him to this position had the option of turning him into a frog. Alas, if he ahd only chosen more wisely! Upon the return of the princess, Rick finally decides to give his client what she needs rather than precisely what she wants…
Act three introduces Sarah, written for coloratura soprano Patrice Boyd, who is in love with her boyfriend Richard, who loves to play the piano. In …And Piano Make Three, Sarah discovers what life with a man who is obsessed can be like. He has named his nine-foot Steinway Elsie and dotes on her constantly. He is so devoted to playing that when she first met him in Central Park he was walking his portable Yamaha. The act comes to a sparkling conclusion when Richard, Sarah, and Elsie finally come to an understanding in this romantic comedy.
The entire evening features the composer at the piano where in the Epilogue, he undergoes significant mental gyrations as he tries to determine how to voice the leading characters in his new opera.
Production History
Originally produced at the Chicago Stages Festival in 2000, this trilogy of one-act operas was created by Dr. Seward for two performers, one of whom plays the piano. The women’s roles in Piano Detective and Piano Princess are written for mezzo and lyric soprano, respectively, with …And Piano Make Three written for coloratura soprano. Thus, the woman’s voice becomes increasingly higher from act to act. In addition to the casting, several other commonalities bind the three acts together. In each case, the man is named a variation of Dick, Rick and Richard; two common musical motives appear in all three — heard in the final act as “What a magical year this has been…” and “When will he wear my wedding ring?”; quotes from the works of William Shakespeare; a use of film genre — first, film noir, secondly fantasy, and thirdly romantic comedy; music which arises comedically out of the situation; finally, a whimsical “over-the-top” focus on some aspect of music. Each work can be performed separately or as a trilogy with an Epilogue — which takes place in the mind of a composer.