Apparition

High voice and piano

This piece was commissioned by the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program and written for soprano Anne Wright while I was a composition fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2021. I was first introduced to Stéphane Mallarmé's poetry while studying the music of Maurice Ravel as a graduate student at Rice University. I admired Mallarmé's evocative language and natural imagery, and though I do not speak French, I decided to try my hand at setting one of his poems - my first attempt at setting a non-English text. In this poem, "Apparition," the speaker, mourning the loss of a loved one, suddenly sees a vision of his love, laughing joyfully, bringing him comfort in his grief.