The Creative Identity of Women: An Introduction to Select Chamber Music Theater Works by Composer William

Osborne for Trombonist Abbie Conant

Presented by Dr. Jessica D. ButlerInternational Trombone Festival 2014

William Osborne & Abbie Conant

The Wasteland Company & Chamber Music Theater

• Musical Mono-Dramas• Performance Artist +

Accompaniment• Minimal Sets• Clear, Poetic Texts• Realistic Character Development • Inspired by Samuel Beckett• Focus on the Creativity of Women

A.E.R. Structure

Anticipation Event Reflection

A.E.R. Structure

Winnie (1983)

Winnie (1983)

Winnie (1983)

Textural Analysis Within A.E.R. Structure

Winnie 2 Winnie 3

Miriam Trilogy

“The Trilogy shows us what is behind each of the three doors of the subjective perception of a woman. In

general, we experience a universal anima and feminine spirit. We experience a woman’s spirit of creativity caught in the poisoned landscape of patriarchy. We

experience a world where the feminine is not truly seen, where it is not taken seriously, and where it is

instrumentally zed and deeply violated.” -Abbie Conant

Miriam Trilogy Part One, The Mirror–Musical pantomime– Depicts Miriam’s identity crisis and

attempted suicide

Part Three, The River–Miriam and infant daughter– Biblical reference

Miriam: The Chair

Miriam: The Chair

Miriam 4Miriam 5

“I was personally experiencing pure hatred because I was a feminine being. Just to experience that viscerally…I think a lot of women experience it at an unconscious level and they’re

constantly hiding it from themselves because it’s so painful to be hated because you’re a woman. But it is everywhere if you have eyes to see it…And at the time I didn’t get it. I wasn’t a

feminist—I was a trombone player. I played the best, and I got the job, but then there was all of this other stuff. And it took

many years before I realized it wasn’t about me as a player, it was about me as a woman.” -Abbie Conant

Street Scene for the Last Mad Soprano

The Mad Soprano

Operatic Characters in Street Scene

• Lucia from Donizetti’s Lucia di

Lammermoor

• Brünhilde from Wagner’s Ring Cycle

• Mimi from Puccini’s La Bohème

• Desdemona from Verdi’s Otello

Osborne’s Cell Theory for Combinatorial Hexachords

“Oscar Wilde once said, ‘Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.’ This theme is central to Street Scene for the

Last Mad Soprano. Through art we shape the way we view the world and ourselves. Through art we decide what we are as humans and how we will live our lives.” -William

Osborne

“Cast on my grave a flower,But let there be no weeping,

When ‘neath the turf I’m sleeping,Let not an eye grow dim.”

“For ‘mid the fields of azureI go to wait for him,

Ah yes, ah yes, ah yes, ah yes,‘Mid the fields of azure I wait for him,

Ah yes, ah yes, ah yesI wait.”

-Mad Soprano as Lucia SS 1

“Let me die, and what do you want,

you who comfort me in such a harsh fate, in this great suffering?”

-Mad Soprano as Arianna

“The poor soul that’s pining alone and lonely

There on the des’late strand.Oh Willow! Willow! Willow!

Upon her bosom her head inclining.Willow! Willow! Willow!”

-The Mad Soprano as Desdemona

SS 3SS 4