CONCERT PREMIERE
SEPTEMBER 21-22, 2024
House of the Redeemer, NYC
Details to follow

Please note: All files and their content copyright 2024 Germaine Shames and Paul Scherer —- all rights reserved

IN VENICE

An Opera about the Pursuit of Love and Inspiration (not necessarily in that order)

Music: Paul Scherer Libretto: Germaine Shames

Based on the Edith Wharton short stories, "The Muse’s Tragedy" and "The Touchstone"

The young biographer of a renowned poet chances upon the poet’s much talked-about Muse during a sojourn in Venice. They spend a week together—ostensibly, to collaborate on a volume of verse. Instead, romance blossoms.

Ten years after, the biographer returns to Venice with his young socialite wife, having sold his Muse’s love letters to pay for the honeymoon.

Can a Muse inspire the most sublime sonnets in the history of poetry and yet not be loved?

SETTING: a restaurant on Venice’s Grand Canal

TIME: 1900-1910

CAST:

Lewis Danyers

Young literary biographer inclined to romanticize his subjects; 27 years old, tenor

Sylvia Anerton and ghost

A widowed society woman rumored to be the Muse of a famous poet (Vincent Rendle); 40 years old, mezzo- soprano

Mrs. Memorall

Meddling society woman with a penchant for matchmaking; 40s to mid-50s, mezzo- soprano

Vincent Rendle’s ghost

Famous poet and devoted friend of Silvia Anerton; 60s, tenor

Flamel

Flamboyant collector, a pragmatist, 30s through 60s, baritone

Alexa Trent

Danyers’ young bride, frivolous-appearing but more astute than she lets on; early 20s, mezzo soprano

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A note from the creators: These early Wharton stories, little known, already display the subtle wit and unsparing insight that would earn the author world renown. Together, they form a 90-minute two-act chamber opera rich in moral dilemmas and as relevant today as when the pieces were first published.

TREATMENT:

Act One

Danyers and Mrs. Memorall meet for tea in a near-deserted restaurant in Venice. Danyers, having recently published a biography of poet Vincent Rendle, dreams of becoming a poet himself. When Mrs. Memorall informs him that Sylvia Anerton, rumored to have been the great Rendle’s muse, is in town, Danyers goes to extreme lengths to meet her. He succeeds and soon finds himself swept up in a love affair with the legendary older woman.

Sylvia Anerton, sensing that Danyers has designs on her beyond a fling, resolves to slip out of Venice one morning and spare them both a painful parting. Danyers, however, finds her on the verge of departure and demands an explanation. Sylvia confesses that she is not a muse at all, but an unrequited admirer whose selfless friendship with the renowned poet cost her the better part of her youth. Danyers, infatuated and in too deep to withdraw, woos her all the more ardently, until at last her resistance fails.

“What’s sweetest never ends. Love is no lie.” The end of Act One heralds a future for the couple, however mismatched or misguided.

Act two

Ten years later, an older and less ebullient Danyers returns to Venice alone. While consulting with a worldly older man about the sale of personal letters, the ghost of Sylvia Anerton appears. She has died—and died famous, having blossomed in her final years into a gifted poetess. Against his higher judgment, Danyers, by that time in love with a young socialite and too cash-strapped to marry her, sells Sylvia’s letters.

The letters, collected in a volume and published as The Anerton Letters, cause a sensation in Danyers’ social circles. When he returns to Venice to honeymoon with his nubile bride, everyone seems to be reading them. Although he has hidden his own identity, the fear of disclosure dogs him. Sylvia’s ghost stands between him and his new life. Desperate for closure, he visits Sylvia’s grave, where the old lovers settle scores. The great woman forgives the flawed wannabe poet, but will he ever forgive himself?

“Not every legend is a Muse. Best make love the vice you choose.” In the pursuit of love and inspiration (not necessarily in that order), Danyers sets out looking for the former and finds the latter, and Sylvia vice-versa. One fateful encounter in Venice changes the course of two lives and leaves behind a legacy of late-blooming genius.

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