Act I, scene 2: “Christos, I Cannot See You any Longer” (1:48)
Act II, scene 3: Soldiers in the Village Clearing (4:21)
Duet from Act III, scene 5: “Live for Me Long as the Mountains” (2:24)
Act III: “How Can You Let the Killers in Your Midst Live Free” (3:28)
Conductor
Musical Preparation
Eleni
Spiro
Katis
Andartina
Antonovna
Nakova
Nikola
Glykeria
Nick
VOX Ensemble
George Manahan
Susan Woodruff Versage
Emily Pulley
Brian Anderson
Scott Guinn
Anya Matanovič
Heather Johnson
Lielle Berman
Jonathan Makepeace
Jennifer Zetlan
Alexander Tall
Jennifer Bates, Mae Carrington, Karen Feder, Basia Revi, John Howell, Clifford Terry, Edward Pleasant, Dennis Blackwell
Cary Ratcliff (b. 1953), a native of California, resides in Rochester, New York. He studied composition at Eastman School of Music with Joseph Schwantner and Chris Rouse, contemporary piano with David Burge, and accompanied art song in the studio of Jan DeGaetani. He is a keyboardist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Show more
His children’s magical opera Mice and Beans premiered in San Diego in April. His oratorio Ode to Common Things (Pablo Neruda poems, in Spanish), commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Rochester Oratorio Society, will be performed in Austin, Shanghai and Milwaukee in the next 2 seasons, including the first performance by a Western chorus in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, preceding the ‘08 Summer Olympics. His Bulgarian Dance Suite was recently choreographed by the Rochester Ballet, who will now create a ballet to his Gitanjali Dances for 2009. A forthcoming album of his art songs features Kathryn Lewek, with oboist Richard Killmer and saxophonist Chien-kwan Lin. Earlier works include his Viola Concerto, which won ASCAP’s Nissim prize for best new American orchestra work. He created a decade of orchestral soundtracks for the Smithsonian’s Einstein Planetarium, has taught orchestration and choral writing courses at Eastman School of Music and conducted several seasons of its Musica Nova Ensemble. Ratcliff’s choral works are published by Boosey & Hawkes and G. Schirmer. Show less
Bob Koch has assisted in the creation of the scenario for Eleni and in the completion of the libretto. Robert Koch was Dean of University College, University of Rochester, 1970-1982, and for two decades was Chairman of Language and Literature at Rochester Institute of Technology. His writings include the libretto for Cary Ratcliff's opera Ellis Island, published poetry, and several hundred regional history pieces and book reviews for XWWI Public Radio. He was educated at the University of Rochester, Harvard and University of Chicago.
The opera is based on Nicholas Gage’s 1983 book Eleni and on conversations with him. It continues a theme of my first opera Ellis Island of American immigrants who arrive with histories of overwhelming pain and hardship.
Eleni acquired a new ending as I learned of Eleni Gage’s journey to Lia in 2004 to rebuild her grandmother’s house and re-inhabit it (when not a student at Columbia), encouraging her father and aunts to further reconciliation with their painful past.
The opera is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Treash, Director of Eastman Opera, who directed my first opera, and who first believed in the vision for this one.
1945. A mountain village of northern Greece. The Germans are gone. Eleni Gatzoyannis and her five children await the resumption of mail that should bring word from her husband Christos in America that he has arranged for their emigration.*
Disaffected men leave to join the Communists organizing to invade Greece. *
A trunkful of provisions arrives from America, but Christos’s letter says “not yet.” The People’s Democratic Army advances on Lia. Eleni’s fleeing father tells Eleni to stay to protect her husband’s house: “They will not hurt women and children.” The army conscripts village girls, including Glykeria, and expropriates Eleni’s house. Show more
Act II
The guerillas announce the deportation of all children to camps in Stalinist countries ‘to ensure loyalty.’
A girl soldier mocks her previous life, and soldiers join her anthem of new-found revolutionary purpose. Antonova, who has criticized the deportation, is executed. *
Suspicions of disloyalty breed more executions; fearful neighbors are baited to turn on each other. Eleni plans an escape for her remaining family, but at the last minute cannot participate herself. She insists they not risk waiting for her, promising to follow.
Act III
Her family discovered missing, Eleni is arrested and tried before the villagers, while their children are marched toward Albania. Glykeria manages to visit Eleni before her execution. *
1980. A New York Times reporter arrives, investigating the civil war and eye-witnesses to Eleni’s life. Nick Gage comes to understand his mother’s sacrifice but also tracks down the man who tortured and executed her. Nick roars against Greece’s amnesty to war criminals, leaving him to extract satisfaction. *
Nick confronts the remorseless Katis with his tape recorder and a gun. Eleni soars into his consciousness. 2005. Eleni’s children and descendants circle-dance in their home in Worcester, MA, her spirit in their midst.
*Indicates excerpt performed in VOX 2008 Show less
