75TH SEASON 

OF CONCERTS

SEPTEMBER 10 AND 11, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Euridice's death. Photo by Justin Jankus

3:00 • West Building, West Garden Court

The Vermont Opera Project

Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice

Quincy Bruckerhoff, General Director

Jeff Bruckerhoff, Managing Director

Act I

Part i Orpheus

Part 2 Euridice

Part 3 Bliss

Part 4 Home

Part 5 They Dance

Part 6 The Song

Act II

Part 7 Illness

Part 8 Death

Part 9 The Underworld

Part 10 The Journey Back

Part 11 Song 2

Part 12 Conclusion

Part 13 Epilogue

Cast

Wesley Christensen, Orpheus

Suzanne Kantorski, Euridice

Dancers 

Ben Delony

Caitlin Klinger

Zoe Marr Hilliard

Liam Saito

Orchestra

Robert Wood, Conductor

Laurie Rogers, piano

Kei Sugiyama, violin

Steffani Kitayama, violin

Tiffany Richardson, viola

Danielle Cho, cello

Ali Cook, bass

Director/Choreographer

Keturah Stickann

Costume Designer

Anya Klepikov

75th Season • 3
The Vermont Opera Project

The Vermont Opera Project brings new and rarely performed operas to unexpected

locations in Vermont. Its inaugural production of Orpheus and Euridice was performed

at an old manufacturing space knows as the Small Monuments Room of the former

Vermont Marble Company, which once carved headstones for Arlington Cemetery.

The Composer

Ricky Ian Gordon was born and raised on Long Island. After studying piano, composition,

and acting at Carnegie Mellon, he settled in New York City, where he quickly emerged as

a leading writer of vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. Gordon's

songs have been performed and recorded by such renowned singers as Renee Fleming,

Dawn Upshaw, Nathan Gunn, Judy Collins, Kelli O'Hara, Audra MacDonald, Kristin

Chenoweth, Nicole Cabell, Frederica von Stade, Andrea Marcovicci, Harolyn Blackwell, 

Betty Buckley, and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Recent productions of his work include

Morning Star; 27; A Coffin in Egypt; Rappahannock County; Sycamore Trees; The Grapes of

Wrath; Green Sneakers; My Life with Albertine; Orpheus and Euridice; and Bright Eyed Joy: The

Music of Ricky Ian Gordon. His upcoming projects include an opera for the Metropolitan

Opera and Lincoln Center Theater, Intimate Apparel, and A House Without a Christmas Tree

for Houston Grand Opera.

The Musicians

Clarinetist Wesley Christensen (Orpheus) has played with the Champlain Philharmonic

Orchestra, Shrewsbury Chamber Music Society, University of Vermont Symphony 

Orchestra, the Vermont Mozart Festival, and the Opera Theatre of Weston, Vermont.

An active orchestral player, Christensen has played at the Flynn Theater in Burlington,

Vermont, and Carnegie Hall in New York. He currently teaches clarinet at the Monteverdi

Music School in Montpelier, Vermont.

Soprano Suzanne Kantorski (Euridice) created the role of Mary in the internationally

acclaimed operatic tableaux Oh My Son, by Marcos Galvany, and sang on the recording as

well as on tour. Kantorski has recently completed a feature film called The Bohemians slated 

for worldwide release in 2016. She has also performed the roles of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin,

Leila in The Pearl Fishers, and Mimi in La Boheme for the Opera Company of Middlebury.

4 * National Gallery of Art

Synopsis

Orpheus enchants the world and all of its creatures with his music, in this case a clarinet.

One day, while strolling along and playing, he sees a vision of beauty and perfection —

Euridice. It is love at first sight and he is completely entranced. She is equally smitten

and they unite. They dance. They set up a home welcoming to all around them. Orpheus

feels that he is a part of the world in a way he has never felt before — a oneness with

everything and everyone.

One day, Euridice notices that she lacks her usual energy and is soon overcome by

fatigue. She takes to her bed and sleeps all the time. Orpheus tries to wake her and cheer 

her, but she just cries. Orpheus grows despondent and desperate as Euridice fades away in

front of him, for he cannot live without her.

Orpheus goes to the underworld to beg the gods to let him have Euridice back. He

plays every song he knows in an attempt to convince them. They agree, but on the condition that he does not look back at her until they are both returned from the underworld. He

has to trust that she is behind him until they have both crossed that threshold. Euridice is

unaware of this condition and believes he is ignoring her. She dogs him and cajoles him in a

way that she has never done before. In a moment of weakness, he turns to reassure her and

she disappears forever.

Alone again, he continues to play his music, but it becomes so dark and disjointed

that instead of charming the creatures, he depresses them and eventually they attack him.

They tear him to pieces so that "down the river floats his head from which, it is said, music 

never ceases."

75th Season • 5
The Origins of Orpheus and Euridice

I first met Todd Palmer some years ago at a Christmas party given by Neil Goren, the pianist,

coach, and conductor of Gotham Opera. After that, he attended many of my performances

and one day said he would like to commission a piece. Because many of the performances

he had come to had been vocal, he thought it would be good to have a clarinet, piano,

and voice piece, and in particular, since he had been touring with many sopranos playing

Schubert's "Shepherd on the Rock," he thought he could get some kind of contemporary

companion piece for that. I started musing on what it could be.

In 1995, my partner at the time, Jeffrey Grossi, started to become very ill. What

a maelstrom it is when someone is being taken from you incrementally and you are at

a monumental loss of control. Thus, it was not a particularly inspired time for me. I kept 

meeting with Todd about which text to use, or wondering if I should write my own, but 

essentially, I was rudderless, and for him, I'm sure, frustrating, in my lack of direction. Finally,

I decided to do a piece just for piano and clarinet, which I know, did not make Todd happy,

but by then, anything would have sufficed.

When I was little, one of the foreign films my sister took me to see was Marcel

Camus's beautiful Black Orpheus with Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn. I became quite

obsessed with that myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and read several versions.

One night, during this difficult period for me, I had a vision and rose from sleep,

went to the dining-room table, and wrote the entire text for what became my Orpheus and

Euridice. It seemed I suddenly had a deep identification with Orpheus...only my Euridice

was not bitten by a snake, but robbed slowly by an incurable virus. Somehow, in my mind's

eye and ear, I saw Todd as the "Orpheus" playing his "pipe," instead of a lute or a lyre.

Euridice (I changed the y to an i) was both herself and the storyteller...the notes belonged 

to Orpheus and the pianist, and the words belonged to Euridice.

When I was done, I saw that I had created a two-act structure, which seemed very

clear to me. Act I was about the birth of love, and Act II was about the birth of art through

suffering. Jeffrey woke at five a.m. from the strange energy that had taken over our apartment.

I read the text to him in a sort of sweaty amazement. I called Todd at about eight-thirty to

share my great news, which was met with some trepidation because the whole notion of a

short little companion piece to the Schubert was now dashed. Still, he was a good sport and

allowed me to proceed. The strings were added for a production in Long Beach, California, 

which took place in a swimming pool. I am so happy the strings are being used for the 

production at the National Gallery of Art, as I like the lushness and otherworldliness they add.

Are we taught myths so that later on when we need them we can tell our own stories

through them? Is that how they came about? At that moment in my life, it is as if this myth

and its eruption inside me — the window it created — saved me.

Program notes by Ricky Ian Gordon

6 • National Gallery of Art

Upcoming events of the SeventyFifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F, Lammot

Belin Concerts

NGA GuitarFest

September 15-18

West Building, West Garden Court

Celil Refik Kaya

Albeniz, Morel, Rodrigo

September 15,12:10

Gohar Vardanyan 

Aguado, de Falla, Piazzolla

September 15,1:10

Scott Borg

Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Granados 

September 16,12:10

Adam Kossler

de Falla, Ponce, Ravel

September 16,1:10

Jorge Caballero

Garcia de Leon, Ginastera, Villa-Lobos

September 17, 3:00

Pablo Villegas

Mangore, Bonfa, Gutierrez

September 18, 3:30

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle.

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

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The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington

No BS! Brass Band

September 25,12:00 and 2:00

Mall Steps

Cover Cover art by Jason Bemisfor

Vermont Opera Company

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street nw,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gallery Archives