The Legend of the Fairy Melusine
Steven Jobe has been commissioned by the First Works Festival in Providence RI to compose an opera, The Legend of the Fairy Melusine. The French tale of the fairy Melusine—half woman, half serpent—is filled with romance, mystery and a surprise ending. Jobe's approach to the musical setting of the story will emphasize light, airy sounds, and so the opera will feature, for example, vocalists who specialize in Baroque opera. The singers will be accompanied by a twenty-piece chamber ensemble consisting of strings, orchestral harp, and winds (bassoon, oboe and trumpet), as well as exotic percussion in the form of gongs, tubular bells and glass bells.
In the story, Melusine appears most of the time as a normal woman. But, according to a curse laid on her, once a week on Saturdays, she transforms into half-woman, half-serpent. One of Jobe's leading ideas about the musical setting is that Melusine, when she is in her half-snake manifestation, will sing “metal and glass arias,” that is, songs where the primary accompaniment to the voice will be metal percussion -- cathedral chimes and gongs -- in combination with glass bells. His notion is that these exotic percussion instruments, and specifically the glass bells, are particularly suited to the telling of such a supernatural story and will serve as the signature sound of the opera.
Jobe has completed the libretto and has begun work on the music. Examples of how the opera could sound can be heard in his recent song settings.
Recent songs:
Chartres
Text by Steven Jobe (2008); Ellen Santaniello, soprano.
Edgewise (2007) and Newfield (1997)
Text by Steven Jobe (2007); Joel McCoy, tenor.
Video Clip: Edgewise and Newfield
A Phoenix Flame (2009)
Text by Robert Graves; Ellen Santaniello, soprano; Joel McCoy, tenor.
