Moonlight Aria and Duet (2016)

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, cello & piano
Text by Nahal Navidar
Commissioned by Chamber Music Palisades
8 minutes

Hila Plitmann, soprano; Victoria Fox, mezzo-soprano; Michael Kaufman, cello; Hye Jung Shin, piano

Full Recording and Alternate Scoring

Moonlight Trio:
lyric soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos, flute/alto flute, cello and piano

Two women unjustly incarcerated by an authoritarian regime dream of their lives outside of prison's walls. A moonbeam casts its light into their adjacent cells, sparking memories of loved ones long gone.

WORLD PREMIERE
Saousan Jarjour, soprano; Victoria Fox and Jessica Mirshak, mezzo-sopranos, Susan Greenberg, flute; David Garrett, cello; Delores Stevens, piano; Lisa Sylvester, conductor
May 10, 2016, Los Angeles, CA

Moonlight Trio
Text by Nahal Navidar

"Do you feel the light of the moon?
How beautiful she is?
Nothing can relinquish her grace
Hundreds of miles beyond
Beyond the bars of this cell and prison's concrete walls
Through corruption, through the streets, the clouds
She hovers beyond the atmosphere and reaches down to you
To lift your beaten bodies
Consoled in her cool embrace
Do you see her?"

"I see her..."

"...These walls cannot consume us
Our voices are loud and strong
They echo down the chamber
And ring across the sky

The wind may shake the tree
And strip her of her leaves
But there is no unearthing the deeply rooted tree"