Monday, November 20, 2006

A taste of my libretto So I've been madly writing this libretto for an opera on the life and death of Negro Leagues great Josh Gibson. It's called "The Summer King," a reference to the summers Gibson and many other black players spent in Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, where bigger paychecks and greater acclaim awaited them.
My composer Daniel Sonenberg and I worked out a treatment that centers around his last day alive, a series of visions from his past, threading around it the legend of his 1930 home run in Yankee Stadium, which is thought to be the only ball hit clear out of the stadium.
Here is an aria of Josh's when he realizes where his life has taken him -- it's a sonnet, in case you don't notice.