Opera Colorado, Director: Beth Greenberg, Photo: Matthew Staver 

The Scarlet Letter is a new opera by composer Lori Laitman and librettist David Mason, based on the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic.

Commissioned and performed by The University of Central Arkansas in November 2008, Opera Colorado presented the professional World Premiere in May 2016.

Naxos released the CD in August 2017, capturing Opera Colorado's premiere with Ari Pelto and the Opera Colorado Orchestra and Chorus. The CD has received glowing reviews:

“The first thing that leaps into one’s ears is the sheer beauty of the music. Laitman has devoted much of her career to the art song, and her ability to meld words with lyrical, often soaring lines is on abundant display in her opera. The score pinpoints the distinctive qualities of the characters. Hester Prynne, forced to wear the letter ‘A’ as a symbol of her adultery, sings in urgent rhapsodic phrases, while her lover, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, ranges from anxious reflections to dramatic outbursts, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s estranged husband, strikes sinister notes on his vengeful path. The people of the Puritan community reveal their moral pretensions in passages of reverent rigidity." — Gramophone Magazine

The Scarlet Letter was named a "Critic's Choice" in Opera News:

"Lori Laitman’s score succeeds with a surging, sweeping, unapologetically tonal landscape that offers carefully etched character portraits, rapturous choral expostulations and lush orchestrations of insistently tuneful melodic motifs. David Mason’s gently rhyming libretto telescopes the plot, and the reflective moments are earned and don’t overstay their welcomes. The opening is stirring and engaging, establishing the sincerity of the townspeople’s conviction in their own rectitude. Hester’s lullaby to Pearl is refreshingly devoid of self-pity and full of maternal wonder, ending on a celestial high C. The tension-filled confrontation, during which Chillingworth poisons Dimmesdale while pretending to cure his illness, is a gripping cat-and-mouse seduction...The choral singing is particularly strong, and the orchestra, led by Ari Pelto, is polished and precise." 

The CD was named one of the top 5 CDs of 2018 by Fanfare Magazine:

 "Lori Laitman writes brilliantly scored music; it’s been a while since I’ve heard such a colorful new American opera. It has many other virtues as well: eminently singable vocal lines in which the words are easily understood—unusual even in English, a credit to the composer and to librettist David Mason as well as to the singers—plus a convincing movement along a dramatic course...Act II accelerates the drama and blossoms musically...Laitman’s music rises in a long impassioned duet; it’s a scene that could wow an audience at the Met. Her writing is tonal yet new, unconstrained and uninhibited by the past...A fine rhymed libretto; terrific, well-crafted music. 

David Mason's...text captures the spirit of Hawthorne's novel...Laitman's music reflects not only the essential truth of the text, but also evolving arcs of the three characters at the heart of the drama...Each of the three characters undergoes wrenching emotional turmoil and Laitman's score conveys that with thrilling vividness. It is especially gratifying to hear a modern opera score that delivers so many moments of transcendent beauty...Laitman's brilliant choral writing leaves us hungry for more...Laura Claycomb is a radiant Hester whose voice grows still more beautiful as it soars above th e staff, and she caresses her melodic lines with true understanding. Her singing of the lullaby to her baby girl is nothing less than sublime. Tenor Dominic Armstrong manages to elicit a surprising amount of sympathy for his duplicitous character and his singing rings with pain. Baritone Malcolm MacKenzie wields his magnificent voice in the role of Chillingworth with conviction and unfailing intensity. Mention must be made of mezzo soprano Margaret Gawrysiak as Mistress Hibbons, whose searing confrontation scene with Dimmesdale is among the most exciting passages in the opera. Conductor Ari Pelto draws exemplary work from the Opera Colorado Orchestra and Chorus...This is a work of rare accomplishment and bodes well for future contributions that Laitman and Mason are likely to make to the cause of contemporary opera." — The Journal of Singing (May/June 2018)

“Laitman is one of the most prolific and fluent song and opera composers of our time, with a gift for effortless melody and for getting to the emotional heart of her texts. In her opera on Hawthorne’s classic novel she is greatly assisted by David Mason’s supremely skilful rendering of the story into verse. Laitman’s lyrical, eloquent score, firmly tonal, belongs to the tradition of the great opera composers of the past, with vividly portrayed characters whose dramatic trajectory and development is reflected in music so finely descriptive as to render staging all but redundant. Dimmesdale’s progressive disintegration of spirit, Chillingworth’s duplicitous self-deception and above all Hester’s resolve and strength of character are presented as a psychological drama of devastating insight through the power of meticulously crafted dialogue and exquisite musical color and shading. This is not a work of introverted self-examination, though; the judgmental societal mores of the day provide a dramatic backdrop in powerful choral scenes and the interaction of secondary characters.” © 2017 Records International

"The two-act work artfully distills all of the signature qualities of her songwriting artistry into a powerful operatic tapestry. The lyrical and tonal qualities central to her writing are in abundant supply, which enhances the work's accessibility and facilitates the listener's rapid immersion into its world. Much as they do in her art songs, melodies soar and match the complex psychological states of the characters. Were The Scarlet Letter set in a language unfamiliar to the listener, the emotional expression captured in the writing would still convey the essence of the scene with clarity, and though the story unfolds in mid-1600s Boston, its easily relatable emotional universe never feels remote." Textura.org (October 2021)

FULL CD BOOKLET AND ALBUM INFORMATION

 

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.669034-35


LISTEN ON SOUNDCLOUD

 

https://soundcloud.com/yale75/sets/the-scarlet-letter-a-new-opera


LISTEN ON YOUTUBE

 

ACT I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLhUlVxIUIQ&list=PL_5dvGyBRt0pXm0LdR3iS6bYGuEsjLwa1


ACT II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_lNbfHDmg

 

The individual arias, listed below, are available on my site on MusicaNeo.

Hard copies are available from Glendower Jones at www.classicalvocalrep.com.

 

Dimmesdale's aria Our Nights is also part of the anthology "Arias for Young Voices — Tenor Edition" — edited by Barbro Marklund and published by Gehrmans Musikförlag, Scandanavia's best music publisher.

 

 

 

Soprano:

Beyond All Price — Hester's Lullaby from Act I, Scene 2

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This Canopy of Trees — Hester's Aria from Act II, Scene 1

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Mezzo-soprano:

Come To The Devil's Fire — Aria for Mistress Hibbons (the Witch) from Act I, Scene 4

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Baritone:

Now Truly Know Me — Chillingworth's Lament from Act I, Scene 2

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Tenor:

Our Nights — Dimmesdale's Aria from Act I, Scene 4

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Ye People of New England — Dimmesdale's Confession Aria from Act II, Scene 2

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Soprano and Tenor Duet:

Our Eden Here Is Love — Hester and Dimmesdale's Love Duet from Act II, Scene 1

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