Alice Shields’ music is in a lyrical style encompassing Gregorian chant and Indian ragas. Drawing on her experience in genres including electronic music, Indian vocal music, vocal chamber music and opera, her operatic works include Apocalypse, recorded on CRI; Mass for the Dead (American Chamber Opera Co.); Shivatanz (Akademie der Künste, Berlin); and Wraecca (an opera using Anglo-Saxon, for Composers Chamber Theater, NYC). Show more
Recent works include The River of Memory (2008) for trombone and tape for Monique Buzzarté through Meet The Composer’s Soloist Champions project; and Dust for Dance Alloy of Pittsburgh and Arangham Dance Theater of Madras, India, which toured India in 2002.
A native of New York City, Shields is one of the few trained composers who has also widely performed as an opera singer in traditional roles from Mozart, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner to Monteverdi and Cavalli (including in Monteverdi’s Ulysses at City Opera). Embedded in the music of Criseyde here and there you will hear musical homages to some of these composers, as well as to the songs of India.
Shields received her doctorate in composition from Columbia University, where she studied with Jack Beeson and Vladimir Ussachevsky. Criseyde has been supported by the Alice M. Ditson Fund; NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; the PatsyLu Fund for Women’s Music; and was initially commissioned by librettist Nancy Dean. Show less
Nancy Dean, a Vassar BA with Honors and a Masters from Harvard, received her Ph.D. from New York University in Medieval Studies, where her specialization was Chaucer's use of Ovid in his early works. She is the author of articles on Chaucer published in Hunter Studies,Comparative Literature, and Medium Aevum. Show more
She taught at Hunter College for 28 years. She co-edited with Myra Stark an anthology of contemporary feminist short stories, In the Looking Glass, (Putnam’s 1977) and co-edited with M.G. Soares Intimate Acts: Eight Contemporary Lesbian Plays (Brito and Lair, 1997).
Since 1983, Dean has written fourteen plays, including a translation, update, and switch of genders of Moliere's Misanthrope; Burning Bridges; Upstairs? In the Afternoon?; and That Ilk. She was Playwright in Residence for The Actors' Alliance from 1989-2002, which produced her translation of the Misanthrope. Upstairs? In the Afternoon? was produced at WOW Cafe in 1996, and That Ilk was produced in 2000 at The Hudson Guild Theatre. Dean is now revising a novel entitled Three Voices: One Song. Show less
Criseyde is the story of how an uncle, cozying up to his boss, forces his widowed niece to take on the handsome young guy as a lover. The opera summarizes the historical position of women and their lives being controlled by male relatives. The work is written in Middle English and mostly taken from Chaucer. Show more
Act I: Pandar pressures his niece Criseyde into communicating with his boss Troilus.
Act II: The couple, now deeply in love, fall into each other’s arms.
Act III: Things turn out badly. Criseyde, with little choice in anything, is blamed for it all. She is exiled by the government in exchange for a prince held hostage by the enemy. She is taken to an enemy military camp and threatened with rape. The uncle and the lover back home now badmouth her, calling her unfaithful, even treasonous. The lover then deliberately dies in battle to quench his feeling of being betrayed. Show less
Earlier in Act I, Pandar has arranged for his boss Troilus to view his beautiful young widowed niece, Criseyde. Troilus sees her, is bowled over with love and desire and Pandar tells him he will work on Criseyde so that Troilus can date her. Show more
Act I, scene 2: In Criseyde’s Parlor
Criseyde is reading. Her uncle Pandar enters, using threats and guilt-trips to pressure her into letting his boss Troilus visit her. Knowing she is powerless to refuse her uncle, she submits. Angry at her powerlessness, she calls out after him that she will not love a man against her will.
Act II, scene 4: Engagement (Troilus in His Brother’s Bed) Troilus pretends to be sick. Pandar tricks Criseyde into visiting, pressing her to let Troilus “serve” her in a secret love relationship. Troilus pledges his undying love. She falls in love. Pandar joins their hands together.
Act II, scene 5: Guilt (Troilus in His Own Bed)
Troilus lies on his bed in the dark; Pandar lies on a bed across the room. Pandar worries what people will think of him for pimping his niece to his boss. Troilus, grateful, offers Pandar one of his own sisters.
Act II, scene 6: Consummation (Criseyde in Pandar’s Bed)
The Three Ladies sneak out of their room to observe the scene. Criseyde is asleep. Troilus hides in the darkness. Pandar enters the bedroom as she wakes; he gets her to agree to let Troilus enter the room. Troilus appears and Criseyde begins crying. Troilus faints at Criseyde’s distress. Pandar strips off Troilus’ clothes, throwing him onto the bed with Criseyde. Troilus begins to come to, and she whispers that she forgives him. Troilus holds her, saying she has no choice now but to yield to him. Pandar draws a chair close and watches intently. The couple caress and promise to be together always. The music reaches a climax and Criseyde and the Three Ladies step out of character, leaving Troilus spread out in ecstasy on the bed and Pandar staring at the floor, depressed. The women tell us that Fortune has briefly led the two lovers in joy. Show less
