Great Scott
Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica Von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Anthony RossCD1 ACT ONE: IN REHEARSAL
- Overture
- And that, ladies and gentlemen
- From Number 11
- Vesuvio, il mio unico amico
- Five years ago, I was in St. Petersburg
- La mia schiava prigioniera!
- And we are on a break!
- Talk to me about Roane, Winnie
- The writing’s on the wall
- La la la la la la la
- I want to be America’s soprano
- Young, ambitious and a huge talent
- Oh Mrs. F, I wanted to be famous and wonderful
- Sorry Tommy’s late
- And we are back
- I get scared, too, Tommy
- And we are all dancing! / The Fountain Dance
- It’s a disaster
CD2 ACT TWO: IN PERFORMANCE
- Prelude
- Ladies and Gentlemen
- Arden, you have seen the future
- Ah! Tremo!
- I thought that went extremely well
- It’s open, Roane
- I don’t care how good what was
- You’ll never be her
- Maestro Bazzetti, are you there?
- Look for me, I’m there on every page
- All that you leave behind
- Arden. Arden! You’re not dressed for the Mad Scene!
- No man over twenty should be asked to wear a toga
- La bellissima Agrippina
- Padre divino (Rosa’s Prayer)
- Io sola posso salvare Pompei (Finale)
- Applause / Mrs. Flato, I’m so sorry about the Grizzlies
- Thank you for your wonderful support
- Look at the chat boards
- It’s always the song, not the singer
- Wow. You’re beautiful
- The empty theater
In Great Scott, the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano, one of today’s best-loved classical singers, creates a role conceived specifically with her in mind. The character she plays, Arden Scott, just happens to be an opera star, and she is the lynchpin of what Fred Plotkin of WQXR, the USA’s leading classical music radio station, welcomed as a “deeply moving and musically brilliant work” that “should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie’s two previous masterpieces – Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick – already have”.
Jake Heggie, who has been described as US opera’s most successful composer, chose the celebrated playwright Terence McNally as his librettist for Great Scott. The two previously collaborated on the gripping Dead Man Walking, which has become something of a modern classic since its premiere in 2000. Joyce DiDonato first performed its central role, Sister Helen Prejean, at New York City Opera in 2002 and will do so again in concert stagings in London and Madrid in January/February 2018, coinciding with the album release of Great Scott.