Transitions: Sung Stories
The Opera Project
Every life represents a series of stories, often yearning to be heard, for the memories they evoke and the lessons they foretell. The life stories of our elders are especially meaningful in the way they bind past to present, present to future. In the African American community, these stories are often un-documented but can carry on, year after year, generation upon generation, through a time-honored oral tradition. This practice, once the domain of African griots, is now being used in communities around the world, in an effort to preserve the nuance and details of history in the hope that they do not disappear forever.
Transitions: Sung Stories used the oral history process to produce an opera based on the rich life experiences of everyday individuals living at the historically significant NewCourtland, a network of elder care facilities. Their lives reflect adventure, conflict, tragedy, humor, humility, pride, interracial cooperation and, ultimately, hope.
Transitions: Sung Stories is the story of 20th century America, told through the eyes of working class Philadelphians drawn from locations as different as Virginia, Haiti and Poland… all with the same purpose in mind: a better life.
Every life represents a series of stories, often yearning to be heard, for the memories they evoke and the lessons they foretell. The life stories of our elders are especially meaningful in the way they bind past to present, present to future. In the African American community, these stories are often un-documented but can carry on, year after year, generation upon generation, through a time-honored oral tradition. This practice, once the domain of African griots, is now being used in communities around the world, in an effort to preserve the nuance and details of history in the hope that they do not disappear forever.
Transitions: Sung Stories used the oral history process to produce an opera based on the rich life experiences of everyday individuals living at the historically significant NewCourtland, a network of elder care facilities. Their lives reflect adventure, conflict, tragedy, humor, humility, pride, interracial cooperation and, ultimately, hope.
Transitions: Sung Stories is the story of 20th century America, told through the eyes of working class Philadelphians drawn from locations as different as Virginia, Haiti and Poland… all with the same purpose in mind: a better life.
The Synopsis
Transitions: Sung Stories relates the tale of a colorful cast of characters who inhabit the Courtland Home retirement facility in Philadelphia. We explore the residents’ religious values, their racial problems, their service to country and community, their family relationships and the hard scrabble life of the working poor.
There is Jacque… the educated Haitian, Duf - the soldier who almost blew himself up in a mine field while out with a girl, Bo Henderson - who played baseball in the Negro Leagues, Rosary - the woman always trusting in God to make the world right, and others.
There are also flashbacks in the opera where we dramatize scenes in the lives of our characters when they were younger. This reach into the past helps us better understand their motives.
The major arc of the story is the relationship between Bo Henderson and Florence Deal. Florence and Bo knew each other when they were both young. Bo played baseball and did not earn much. When Florence becomes pregnant by Bo, she does not tell Bo, believing that he would never be able to support a child. Consequently, she breaks the relationship with Bo and when the baby is born, she gives up the newborn girl for adoption. Bo never knows. Years later, when Bo and Florence meet up in the Brighton Retirement Center, an unraveling of the past brings Bo and Florence together. Another dramatic event is the rediscovery of the lost daughter given up decades prior to this.
All of the characters are in some way involved in the major through line of the opera. There are difficulties that arise and must be resolved in our story, but the resolution of the tale is hopeful and affecting.
Jules Tasca, Librettist
Jules Tasca is the author of over 125 (full length and one-act) published plays that have been produced in numerous national theaters from the Mark Taper Forum to the Bucks County Playhouse, as well as abroad in England, Ireland, Austria, Germany, South Africa, Canada and Australia. He was the national winner in New York’s Performing Arts Repertory Theater Playwriting contest for his libretto, The Amazing Einstein, which toured the country and played at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For his play, Theater Trip, he was the recipient of a Thespie Award for Best New Play, and Old Goat Song won a drama critic’s award in Los Angeles. His plays, The Spelling of Coynes, The Death of Bliss and Deus-X, have been included in the Best American Short Plays Anthology. His Tragic piece, The Balkan Women, won the prestigious Barrymore Award for Best Play. His play, The Grand Christmas History of the Andy Landy Clan, was broadcast on 47 national Public Radio Stations.
Transitions: Sung Stories relates the tale of a colorful cast of characters who inhabit the Courtland Home retirement facility in Philadelphia. We explore the residents’ religious values, their racial problems, their service to country and community, their family relationships and the hard scrabble life of the working poor.
There is Jacque… the educated Haitian, Duf - the soldier who almost blew himself up in a mine field while out with a girl, Bo Henderson - who played baseball in the Negro Leagues, Rosary - the woman always trusting in God to make the world right, and others.
There are also flashbacks in the opera where we dramatize scenes in the lives of our characters when they were younger. This reach into the past helps us better understand their motives.
The major arc of the story is the relationship between Bo Henderson and Florence Deal. Florence and Bo knew each other when they were both young. Bo played baseball and did not earn much. When Florence becomes pregnant by Bo, she does not tell Bo, believing that he would never be able to support a child. Consequently, she breaks the relationship with Bo and when the baby is born, she gives up the newborn girl for adoption. Bo never knows. Years later, when Bo and Florence meet up in the Brighton Retirement Center, an unraveling of the past brings Bo and Florence together. Another dramatic event is the rediscovery of the lost daughter given up decades prior to this.
All of the characters are in some way involved in the major through line of the opera. There are difficulties that arise and must be resolved in our story, but the resolution of the tale is hopeful and affecting.
Jules Tasca, Librettist
Jules Tasca is the author of over 125 (full length and one-act) published plays that have been produced in numerous national theaters from the Mark Taper Forum to the Bucks County Playhouse, as well as abroad in England, Ireland, Austria, Germany, South Africa, Canada and Australia. He was the national winner in New York’s Performing Arts Repertory Theater Playwriting contest for his libretto, The Amazing Einstein, which toured the country and played at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For his play, Theater Trip, he was the recipient of a Thespie Award for Best New Play, and Old Goat Song won a drama critic’s award in Los Angeles. His plays, The Spelling of Coynes, The Death of Bliss and Deus-X, have been included in the Best American Short Plays Anthology. His Tragic piece, The Balkan Women, won the prestigious Barrymore Award for Best Play. His play, The Grand Christmas History of the Andy Landy Clan, was broadcast on 47 national Public Radio Stations.