Riders to the Sea by Vaughan
Williams
Sung in English
Music Direction by
Sandi Rabas
Stage Direction by
Doug Nagel
Sandi Rabas pianist
CAST
Bartely-Chris Sheppard
Maurya-Mary Ryan
Cathleen-Christina Pezzarossi
Nora-Ashley Miller
A Woman-Jess Shultis
Off stage chorus-comprised of Festival females
Synopsis
Before the opera has begun, Maurya, an elderly
Irishwoman, has lost her husband, father-in-law, and
four of her six sons at sea. At the start of the opera,
her daughters Nora and Cathleen receive word that a body
that may be their brother Michael, Maurya's fifth son,
has washed up on shore in Donegal, far to the north. The
sixth and last son, Bartley, is planning to go to Galway
fair to sell horses. Maurya is fearful of the sea winds
and pleas with Bartley to stay. But Bartley insists on
going and will ride "on the red mare with the gray pony
behind him". Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will
have no living sons, and her daughters chide her for
sending Bartley off with an ill word. Maurya goes after
Bartley to bless his voyage. Nora and Cathleen receive
clothing from the drowned corpse that confirms it as
their brother. Maurya returns home, claiming to have
seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley and
begins lamenting the loss of the men in her family to
the sea. Nora then sees villagers carrying a load, which
turns out to be the corpse of Bartley, who has fallen
off his horse into the sea and drowned. The opera closes
with Maurya's lament: "They are all gone now, and
there isn't anything more the sea can do to me."
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