Oxford University Press is proud to publish musical works by some of the most significant composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, with a catalogue that includes a broad range of choral, orchestral and chamber music.
Written in 2002, Dreaming Blue is the story of a child brought by family into a new culture. Unable to speak the language and not yet able to identify with the surroundings, this child is lonely – just plain lonely and just plain blue. Faced with the need to find a new way of feeling anchored, the child responds creatively to life. The opera began with the words and images of a group of students from Mountain View Elementary School. The children were asked to imagine being their favourite colour, and it was out of their writings and drawings that the characters of the opera emerged.
Contents 1 Overture
Contents 1 Overture (Voice of the Child) 7 Scene 1 (Children’s Chorus, The Child, Voice of the Child, Drumming Group) 26 Scene 2 (Voice of the Child, Baby Blue, Azul, Blue Weirdo) 66 Scene 3 (Blue Weirdo, Baby Blue, The Child, Voice of the Child, Rhythm Group, Azul, Children’s Chorus, Drumming Group) 94 Scene 4 (Baby Blue, Voice of the Child, Blue Weirdo, Judge, Azul, Drumming Group) 127 Scene 5 (Azul, Voice of the Child, Baby Blue, Blue Weirdo) 136 Scene 6 (Blue Weirdo, Azul, Baby Blue, Voice of the Child)
Composer’s Note The opera DreamingBlue began with the words and images of a group of students from Mountain View Elementary School in Salt Lake City. The children were asked to imagine being their favorite color, and it was out of their writings and drawings that the characters of the opera emerged. The students’ work was full of images of beauty, clear emotion, and simplicity of truth. The characters that became Voice of the Child, Baby Blue, Azul, and Blue Weirdo virtually leaped off the pages of these drawings and writings and into the libretto, where they seemed to write the script themselves. Each character took on a specific personality that ultimately directed where the story was going lead. DreamingBlue is the story of how a person who feels lost and floating responds creatively to life — in all its agony and splendor. The opera begins in the fragment of a formal garden which seems foreign to the Child’s everyday experience. Everything is exaggeratedly oversized, and in the distance we hear the sounds of children playing a game of catch. A young Child involved in the game is coerced by the other children to enter into the garden and retrieve their lost ball. After retrieving the ball several times, the Child angrily throws the ball back to the other children one last time only to find that it is hurled back to the garden, where it strikes and shatters a gigantic blue gazing globe. From the shards of blue glass emerge three amazing and charismatic characters — Baby Blue, Azul, and Blue Weirdo — who lead the Child through an enchanting adventure full of color, wonderment, and mystical self-exploration. In DreamingBlue, time is suspended. It is a world where color, sound, and emotion collide into one. Barriers between reality and dream no longer exist, allowing an intimate communication of sound and fervent energy. — LibbyLarsen
