607:, wrote, "Besides cleverly enabling the sung text to emerge with rare clarity, Hagen has fashioned a score of impassioned and compelling beauty. His melodic lines are eminently singable, and his sumptuous orchestral writing constantly enchants the ear. ...it stands as an achievement at once profound and hugely enjoyable." Ivan Katz, in the Huffington Post, wrote "Daron Aric Hagen's score is well-composed and, in many respects, a work of genius. He tends to write in a more facile manner for the women, but his writing for the men (especially tenor William Burden) is complex and highly effective."
524:.) As Huy and Trang tell their story, pointing to where Dodge was shot down, the action they describe is played out around them. A village political official threatens a young girl in order to force Dodge to talk. He accidentally shoots her. That girl was the couple's daughter. Dodge crawls to the daughter, closes her eyes, pulls a photo of his own daughter out of his flight suit, presents it to the parents of the girl. Also, he gives them his "final letter", which they conceal from the
566:, despite the grave risk to herself, goes through the final minutes of her labor as, around her, doctors proceed with the business of the hospital, the father receives his boy's belongings in a small plastic bag, is counseled by a priest and grief counselor. The circle of life is drawn closed as people from Amelia's life (including her parents) seem to reappear as other people – doctors, nurses, orderlies. The baby emerges. An elaborate
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remains for the rest of the opera, a source of inspiration and courage to the real-life Amelia. During the course of the scene, Amelia dreams of her father Dodge, who comes to speak with her about his disappearance, life, and having a baby. She decides to wake up, and does, just after the boy flatlines and dies. Amelia, hard into labor, is wheeled to a delivery room.
528:. "Why did you wait so long to write to us?" Amelia asks the couple. "Because the girl was our daughter," Trang replies. He goes to the family altar, takes down a photo, and hands it to Amelia. It is Dodge's picture of Amelia as a girl. Amanda asks about the envelope. "A letter for you," says Huy. "Do you have it?" asks Amelia. "We burned it. We were angry."
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to the stars as inside her mother folds laundry. Her father, a navy pilot named Dodge, emerges from the house in dress whites and indicates to her that it is time for bed. Her mother, Amanda, receives news that her husband Dodge has been shot down and is missing over
Vietnam. Amelia is sung to sleep
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Amelia lies in a coma. In a room elsewhere in the hospital a young boy (played by the actor who portrayed Icarus) is dying in a bed, his father (played by the actor who portrayed
Daedalus) holds his hand. Amelia has a grown up dream of Amelia Earhart, whose plane materializes above her bed, and who
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on their wings. They are products of Amelia's imagination. It becomes clear that Amelia has serious unresolved emotional and psychological issues with the loss of her father that have been intensified by her pregnancy. In a flashback, she relives the moment her mother told her that her father had
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Amelia and Amanda travel to a village in
Vietnam after being contacted by a North Vietnamese couple, Huy and Trang, who have information about Dodge. The women communicate with the couple through an interpreter. (Much of the scene is sung in the
595:, wrote that "the expressive range of Hagen's music broadens memorably to accommodate the cascade of divergent emotions en route to a grand, life-affirming unaccompanied ensemble for the nine principal singers." Anthony Tommasini, in
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nonette ensues for all of the opera's major characters during which Amelia
Earhart looks out happily into the opera house, the father puts on his coat and shuffles out, Paul and Amelia admire their new baby.
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is a modern opera with traditional values: Ms. McFall's multilayered libretto never loses sight of its story, and Mr. Hagen's restless, questioning music never loses its heart." George Loomis, in the
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between 1966 and 1996. It revolves around the title character, Amelia, who is expecting her first child and explores her relationship with her father, Dodge, a
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issued a grant of $ 500,000 in 2009 to underwrite the first two revivals of the world premiere production.
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Commissions Daron Hagen's Amelia for 2009-10 Season
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Seattle Opera
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124:Background and performance history
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711:"On So Many Levels, a Success".
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380:Museop Kim
313:Jane Eaglen
244:Nathan Gunn
150:Voice type
102:Daron Hagen
29:Daron Hagen
999:Categories
782:2010-06-26
625:Opera News
611:References
568:a cappella
364:David Won
254:The Flier
155:8 May 2010
71:2010-05-08
47:Librettist
628:(online)
500:pregnancy
388:Chaplain
27:Opera by
934:Bandanna
543:delivery
508:Daedalus
452:Synopsis
376:baritone
360:baritone
239:baritone
128:In 2007
106:libretto
63:Premiere
55:Language
458:Vietnam
344:soprano
308:soprano
217:Amanda
181:Amelia
69: (
58:English
1020:Operas
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977:(2015)
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966:Amelia
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504:Icarus
304:Helen
199:Dodge
130:Amelia
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798:Video
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408:tenor
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