April 25, 2024

Flight Through The Stars (1992)

Libretto by Dr. Cory Wade

LISTEN

The Shape Of The Dream 9’00”
The Patron And The Promise 3’37”
Columbus Recounts The Voyage 3’55”
The Inquisition: The Trial of Galileo 7’12”
Lunar Lament (The Downside To The Dream) 6’07”
Whose World Is This? 4’19”
Finale: (In The Queen’s Chambers 7’05”
(Recording: )

for soprano, mezzo, tenor, and bass soli
with full chorus and chamber orchestra
(2122 (flute 1 doubles piccolo) 211 2; perc. Harp, piano, celesta, and full strings.
Level: advanced, 41’15”
Purchase Piano/Vocal Score
Orchestral parts for rent from:
http://ecspublishing.com/departments/rental/rental-request-form/
Phone: (508) 620-7400

Program Notes:

Commissioned by the San Jose Symphonic Choir, this work celebrates aspects of scientific discovery. Featured in the work are sections regarding Galileo, American Indians, the Columbus voyage, and Einstein.

—Henry Mollicone

Reviews:

“Flight Through the Stars” is a grand work musically… Closer to the work of British composers of half a century ago (Elgar, Vaughan-Williams) than to the Broadway and jazz tunesmiths reflected in Mollicone’s operas (“The Face on the Barroom Floor”, “Hotel Eden”), the new cantata is a heroic piece, resembling something between a coronation work for Westminster Abbey and a secular “Te Deum”.

… The kernel of the new work – the Indian Girl’s soliloquy – offers a sublime string interlude conveying a sense of wonder about an unforeseeable future: “Whose world is this?” “Why are we here?”. One of the last messages, exhorting us to exercise a universal compassion, is from a 20th century discoverer, Albert Einstein.
San Jose Mercury News Paul Hertelendy

Audio

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