Convocation Speech

Given at Convocation for the  opening of the Fall semester at New England Conservatory on September 3,2009 in Jordan Hall. My cohort in crime was my ever-lovely, provocative, hairy, and insightful best friend, Brandon Cordeiro. Incidently, he’s looking for a husband and soul-mate. Know anyone? We gots to hook a brother up!! 

Without further ado… 

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Ceceilia: Well, where did we leave off last time?? Oh, right, WELCOME TO COLLEGE! You made it. You’re here. You’ve been oriented to this huge campus, an overwhelming class size, and that behemoth of a football stadium looming a mile away from your dorm. All of you, new and returning, know the buildings, your agenda is in your hand and you’ve staked out the practice rooms with air-conditioning. Now that you know this campus inside and out, ask yourself… does this campus know me? Do I know me? What does that even mean?

Program Notes for Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les Sortilege”

Written for a performance by New England Conservatory’s Undergraduate Opera Studio on March 3 & 4, 2009, 8pm, Brown Hall.

Full Disclosure: I sang Fire/Nightingale.

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L’Enfant et les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) and libretto written by poet Colette premiered in 1926 at the Monte Carlo Opera under the baton of Victor de Sabata with choreography from a very young Balanchine.  Ravel began composing the opera soon after he received the libretto from Colette in 1918. The public favorably received the opera, and it was soon being performed to packed houses in Paris, London and much of Europe. However, the opera did not receive its American debut until 1981 at the Metropolitan Opera. L’Enfant et les Sortileges counts itself among Ravel’s post-war works that emphasize bolder harmonic formulation, exoticism of the natural world, and fantasy.

 

At first glance, the opera divides into two scenes, one in the child’s room with furniture and the second in the garden outside the house with forest creatures, but Ravel’s musical structure does not rest on theatrical conventions. The piece opens with what appears to be directionless undulations outlining a pentatonic scale in 4ths and 5ths, and Ravel gives the passage structure by reiterating portions at the entrance of the child and at the mother’s entrance. Similarly, Ravel reiterates moments of tonality throughout the opera in order to show changes in the child’s character from rage to compassion and remorse. The child’s monologue in E flat major following his encounter with the princess—in sharp contrast with strong preceding passages of bitonality and modalism—begins to show a tender interiority in the child as he laments that he cannot defend the princess against the forces of darkness. Moreover, as the child cries “Mama!” before the final ensemble on a descending 4^th, the animals crudely imitate this interval, first introduced in the undulating, opening prelude and strategically strewn throughout the opera. Finally, the child and the animals find common ground in a stable, hymn-like, G major fugue.