Cassandra
(2024-2026)
a monodrama for soprano (plus claves, guiro, wood chimes, and maraca), with flute (doubling piccolo, bass flute) and violoncello
duration: 25’
SMMP No. 133 (cs)
Texts by Aeschylus
Libretto adapted by the composer from translations by Richmond Lattimore (1947), Ian Johnston (2007), David Slavitt (1997), and Robert Browning (1889).
Greek text edited by Herbert Weir Smyth (1926)
Greek pronunciation guidance by Mary France
I. Oh, shame upon the earth!
II. Guile, and death
III. Oh for the nightingale’s pure song
IV. Flame and pain that sweeps me once again
V. Dochmaic Interlude: What does it matter?
VI. And now the seer is done with me
VII. a shadow will overthrow it
Program Note
Cassandra is a setting of Cassandra’s famous mad scene in Agamemnon, by Aeschylus. Cassandra was the Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo who was doomed to tell prophecies that would not be believed or understood. Over the course of this work, the protagonist receives terrifying premonitions of the violent deeds planned by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus that will eventually claim her life. She is consumed by the overwhelming losses she has endured and wonders how this could be her fate and that of her family’s despite their devotion to the gods. In defiance she throws down her vestments and rejects Apollo, who has abandoned her. Before she is led to her doom, she makes a plea to be avenged before lamenting the state of humanity, where lives are so fragile and impermanent that “one stroke of a wet sponge wipes all the picture out.”
The libretto uses texts both from English translations and the original Greek. Aeschylus’s writing features richly poetic language that can be extremely pungent at times, shifting suddenly to a more ethereal voice expressing philosophical concerns. The text is saturated with references to Greco-Roman myth, even as there are chilling connections with our current circumstance. By eliminating all other roles from the original drama, the libretto keeps matters focused on the character of Cassandra. There is really nothing “mad” about this Cassandra, of course. Not only does she tell the truth, that truth is terrifying.
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