This is the product of the unique and wonderful Composing for Opera course offered at the composition department at U of T Faculty of Music. Selected composers are handed a brand new libretto, and workshop their materials with the opera department in the course of the semester, leading up to a fully staged, costumed performance. I was one of the five composers to participate in Fall/Winter 2018.

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The scene I composed concludes Part I, up to the moment of Adriana smelling the poisonous flower and dying in the performance within performance. The dialogues tackle the worst of human emotions - jealousy, anger, self-pity, and hate. From the diva Adriana obnoxiously bossing everyone around, to her understudy Eve mocking the conductor, to the self-absorbed tenor Carlo's monologue revealing his desires for revenge, the audience is constantly entertained by drama. I composed numerous recitatives and three arias for Adriana, Eve, and Carlo respectively. 

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Taking on the cynical tone of humour from the brilliant libretto, I had my own attempts at dark humour in the music with the use of dissonant and grotesque outbursts of gestures. I also wrote a few not-so-subtle comical moments from pastiche, such as my quotation of the famed Figaro aria from The Barber of Seville. For Adriana's aria, as she begins her text with "Io son l'umile ancella", the opening phrase of the Adriana Lecouvreur aria, not only did I set her aria in the same key of Ab, but I began the aria by quoting the intro orchestration and opening melody of the aria from Adriana Lecouvreur. 

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Also notable to mention is that this opera scene marked another step forward in my exploration of the renewal of tonal materials by further rich extensions of tertial harmonies, and poly chords. 

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As said in a review of the opera posed on the blog Opera Ramblings, "There were also some decent 'arias'.  The tenor, sung by Joshua Clemenger, gets a rather effective revenge aria..."