Tome : a chamber opera in one act

Tome, a chamber opera in one act on a libretto by Maile Meloy, tells the story of Laura, a lawyer whose client, Sawyer, is suing for a tort claim following a debilitating head injury he received while working construction, leaving him with a chimerical grasp on reality and a quickly eroding marriage. When his claim is denied, Sawyer is thrown into a fugue-state, taking a hostage at gunpoint and forcing Laura to choose between helping him escape, and betraying him to the police. The conflict between Laura’s compassion for Sawyer and her ethical obligations form the main source of drama in the story. Tome occupies the middle-ground between musical theater and opera, presenting a dramatic scene that, unlike opera, integrates spoken text and singing, yet eschews the dialogue/music polarization of musical theater. Additionally, the singers play specific characters within the story, but also stand outside of it, adding “back-up” vocals to underline important dramatic points. The result is an intimate and theatrical kind of storytelling, rather than the presentational, linear style of traditional musical theater or opera.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Bolin, Gregory Bryant, 1971-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Welcher, Dan

• Operas--Scores
• Operas--Librettos

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/2152/13171

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/13171