Say It Ain’t So, Joe, a light tragedy by Curtis K. Hughes
an electrifying musical experience on the public personas of Sarah Palin and Joe Biden
With a stunning score and libretto by Curtis K. Hughes, this unique production transforms the true-life words exchanged during the unforgettable 2008 Vice Presidential Debate into a riveting musical journey.
Time
Saturday, October 5, at 7:30pm ET
Location
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA 02472
Tikets
$15 to $55
$75.00 VIP Tickets include a pre-show private reception at the Firebrand Lounge with the composer and artists
Secure your tickets now for a night of music, drama, and a unique look at American politics.
Tickets can be purchased from the Mosesian Center for the Arts Box Office online at mosesianarts.org/shows, in person or by phone at 617-923-0100, Monday-Friday from 10:00 AM-5:00 PM. Don't miss this extraordinary fusion of music and history and music!
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Say It Ain’t So, Joe was written for Guerilla Opera and premiered by the Boston-based ensemble in September 2009 on the stage of the Zack Box at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. The late Larry Phillips of The Boston Musical Intelligencer urged audiences to “run, don’t walk” to see the new opera with “great music” upon its premiere. If you’re hoping for a Sarah Palin SNL sketch, first consider that Guerilla Opera is known for challenging expectations and turning things on their head. This unique, progressive opera transforms the actual words exchanged between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden from the public record of the unforgettable 2008 Vice Presidential debate into a riveting musical journey.
Founded in 2007, the Guerillas have unearthed this gem from the early years of their unique repertoire to explore the riveting work by Hughes anew, amidst another presidential election more than 15 years later.
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Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are used as a point of departure for a musical and dramatic exploration of the tragic and comic aspects of both characters. Yet, the opera isn’t about Palin and Biden as real individuals so much as it is about their public identities as constructed in the imagination of American citizens. Similarly, the depiction of the debate itself isn’t so much an attempt to recreate what actually transpired as it is an evocation of the subjective experience of watching the debate, one in which a viewer’s attention sometime wanders, perhaps certain ideas and utterances stand out while others recede, and time itself doesn’t necessarily progress in a straightforward manner.
The words that are sung during the debate (even-numbered scenes), however, are “real” in that they are derived entirely from the public record. During the other scenes (all odd-numbered scenes), those that are interspersed with the recurrent glimpses of the debate, I took some considerable liberties with assembling the libretto. Nonetheless, the vast majority of the words, with the notable exception of most of Act 1, Scene 3, come from the public record, though generally culled from a wide variety of sources.
In composing the music I was also inescapably aware that politicians themselves are musicians of a sort. Nuances of tempo, phrasing and pitch language are so integral to the public verbal performances of politicians that in many places I chose to literally incorporate them into the music of the opera. Indeed, throughout Act 1, Scene 2, and for shorter stretches in other portions of the opera, you’ll be hearing the actual ‘melodies’ of the debate, rendered almost precisely as they were spoken, but in a musical context. The instrumental music sometimes assists in providing dramatic weight to Biden’s and Palin’s words, while at other times it diverges, or even belittles the candidates. Each of you in the audience might have your own interpretation of the drama, but one certainty is that both Palin and Biden are each the heroes of their own respective stories in this ‘light tragedy.’
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Jennifer Ashe, soprano as Sarah Palin 1
Aliana de la Guardia, soprano as Sarah Palin 2/Diane Sawyer
Amanda Keil, mezzo-soprano as Hillary Clinton
Isabel Randall, mezzo-soprano as Gwen Ifill
Brian Church, baritone as Joe Biden/Joe "The Plumber"
Mike Williams, percussion
Philipp Staudlin, saxophone
Stephen Marotto, cello
Amy Advocat, bass-clarinet
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Location: Theater Lobby
The Lounge opens its doors 90 minutes before curtain and is a benefit for supporting Guerilla Opera at the Firebrand level and VIP tickets holders.