"In listening to Lily, I felt privileged to hear beautiful, powerful music, with a heart-wrenching tale of love, heartbreak, and despair. What an honor and a rich and intense experience!"
-Katherine Keem, Soprano
An opera in two acts. With libretto by Lisa VanAuken.
Based loosely on the novel The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, it tells the story the tragic descent of Lily Bart from high-society in up-state New York in the early 20th Century. This is a traditional opera--that is, one with arias, and with some grandeur. The score is full of rich melodies and is written for full orchestra. Could this be the great American opera that the world has been waiting for?
Lily, An Opera 
This recording was planned and created during the Covid Pandemic.
The restrictions that were imposed on the various aspects of the productions obviously presented challenges: the recording had to be done in two parts; 1st the orchestral recording; and a month and a half later the filming of the staged part with the singers.
The success of the project could not have happened without the generosity of all those involved.
Synopsis
Act One
Scene One: Summertime, 191*. A crowd has gathered at the palatial home of Gus and Judy Trenor; they wait to see the tableaux vivants in which their friends will appear. But no tableaux is more eagerly anticipated than Lily Bart’s. Lily flirts with Selden, who once had an affair with their hostess, Judy. Selden swears the fling is over, but Lily holds secret letters that are evidence of the affair. Lily, who has no income, forces herself to be kind to Gus Trenor, her antagonistic host, because Gus manages what little money she has and plays the stock market on her behalf.
Scene Two: The next morning, Lily is lounging beneath a tree in the morning sunlight rather than trekking off to church with her hosts. Selden stumbles upon her, and believing her to be asleep, ponders his complex feelings for the woman who is part flesh, part work of art. When Lily wakes, they engage in a flirtation that’s both flippant and serious. They nearly make their longed-for connection when a car passes and Lily fears that she will be caught. The spell breaks.
Scene Three: Evening, winter. Lily is called urgently to the Trenor house, where she finds Gus waiting for her. He is drunk and angry. He confesses that all the money that he made for her playing the stocks was fraudulent. He made no money for her; he simply gave her his money. Now, he proposes a bargain: He wants to divorce his wife. It will be easier for him if he has proof of her infidelity, and he knows that Lily holds letters between Selden and Judy. She must give him the letters or he will tell everyone that she took money from him, which will ruin her chance of making a good marriage. When she refuses to turn over the letters, he indicates he will settle for a third option: She must sleep with him—to make up for his suffering marriage bed. Distraught, Lily flees into the street. She meets Selden coming from a party. She fibs to explain why she was at the Trenors’; but Selden catches her in the lie and presumes that she is having an affair with Gus.
Act Two
Scene One: Springtime. Lily is working in a hat shop. Little by little, she has been chipping away at her debt to Gus Trenor. Gus comes to visit her to reiterate his offer: he wants to marry her. With his fortune and her capacity to charm, they will be the toast of New York. But Lily must ruin Selden to facilitate the divorce. It isn’t until Gus points out that Selden has offered no help to Lily whatsoever that Lily—hurt by Selden’s indifference—agrees to his plan.
Scene Two: Autumn at the Trenor’s. Lily plans to announce her engagement to the newly divorced Gus Trenor at a grand party. To pacify herself and to drown her own guilt over dragging Selden’s name through the mud, Lily self-medicates with laudanum. She does her best to charm, and little by little, she begins to win back her old friends. But Selden barges into the festivities, calling her out for inauthenticity. Lily accuses Selden of ignoring her plight, only to learn that he has been overseas and knew nothing of it. In turmoil, Selden flees into the street and the sound of a carriage accident is heard. Lily is told that Selden is dead. She collapses as the curtain drops.
An Article on Lily
https://carrollmagazine.com/it-belongs-to-all-of-us/?fbclid=IwAR1Q-IHU-TDp27e81Vwri56L9K-xC9UidHJXZkyEI5ewm3zrnl_e28PBF2I
