Bilby's Doll is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in three acts composed by Carlisle Floyd

Carlisle Floyd

Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...

. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 is based on the 1928 American novel A Mirror for Witches

A Mirror for Witches

A Mirror for Witches is a 1928 novel by American author Esther Forbes, dealing with the witch hunt in 17th Century New England. The book is still popular and is in print. It has also been adapted for the stage...

by Esther Forbes

Esther Forbes

Esther Louise Forbes was an American novelist, historian andchildren's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal.-Life:...

.

Bilby's Doll was Floyd's eighth opera. It had its premiere on February 27, 1976, at the Houston Grand Opera

Houston Grand Opera

Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...

 in a production by David Pountney

David Pountney

David Pountney is a British theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works...

 with sets by Ming Cho Lee

Ming Cho Lee

Ming Cho Lee is a Chinese-born American theatrical set designer and a longtime professor at the Yale School of Drama....

. The original cast, conducted by Christopher Keene

Christopher Keene

Christopher Keene was an American conductor.Born in Berkeley, California, Keene studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Associated with the Spoleto Festival from 1968 , he was co-founder of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he was Music Director from 1977 to 1980...

, included Catherine Malfitano

Catherine Malfitano

Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...

, Joy Davidson, Thomas Paul, and Jack Trussel. Houston Grand's General Director David Glockley commissioned the work in honor of the US Bicentenial.

Synopsis

Bilby's Doll is the story of Doll Bilby, a French orphan whose spirituality and imagination collide with the hostility and practical ideals of the Puritan colony where she is raised by her foster parents.

Doll was brought to Massachusetts from France by Jared Bilby, her foster father. She declines a marriage proposal from Titus Thumb, a young ministerial student, saying that her natural parents were burned as witches in France and she worries that she might also become a witch. Instead, she meets and marries a man who pretends he is a demon, but who is later revealed to be the estranged and opportunistic son of the minister Zelley, Doll's friend and supporter.

Although she is at first devastated by the revelation of her lover as a mortal, Doll's belief that her husband is a demon is restored as she dies giving birth in a jail cell.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...
Silas (the tavern keeper)	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Deacon Thumb (a prosperous farmer)	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Titus (his son)	baritone
Jared Bilby (a former sea captian)	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
Mr. Zelley (a clergyman)	bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
Goody Goochy (the village midwife-undertaker)	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
Town Crier	tenor
Hannah Bilby (Jared Bilby's wife)	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Doll Bilby (the Bilby's foster daughter)	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Mrs. Thumb (wife of Deacon Thumb)	soprano
Sorrow (twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs Thumb)	Soprano
Labour (twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs Thumb)	Soprano
First Suitor (suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby)	Tenor
Second Suitor (suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby)	Baritone
Shad	Tenor
Mr. Kleaver (the village doctor)	Baritone
Captain Buzzey (the local constable)	Baritone
Mr. Increase Mather	Bass
Young Boy	Non-singing
Goody Greene	Non-singing
A Servant Boy	Non-singing
Judge Bride	Non-singing
Judge Lollimour	Non-singing
People of Cowan Corners and Salem, Deputies, Judges' retinue	Non-singing

External links

• Carlisle Floyd, Boosey & Hawkes