A Coffin in Egypt

A Coffin in Egypt is a chamber opera in one act by composer Ricky Ian Gordon. The work uses an English language libretto by Leonard Foglia which is based on a 1980 play by Horton Foote. Set in Egypt, Texas, the work tells the story of Myrtle Bledsoe, an embittered 90-year-old woman who sifts through the memories of her past in a quest for self-forgiveness. The opera had its world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera (HGO) in March 2014. A Coffin in Egypt was jointly commissioned by the HGO, Opera Philadelphia, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The work was specifically written as a starring vehicle for mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. While the work includes a cast of nine, it is essentially a monodrama in that the heroine is the only role with a substantial amount of singing. The other parts are spoken rather than sung lines apart from a few moments when a gospel quartet is used to "underscore key moments, rather in the manner of a Greek chorus". Von Stade reprised the role of Myrtle for performances in Philadelphia in June 2014, with the Chicago Opera Theater in April 2015 and in the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City in February 2016.

For readers approaching A Coffin in Egypt for the first time, the entry below sets out the dramatic situation, the principal musical highlights, and the work's place in performance history. Detailed scholarly editions of the score and libretto remain the indispensable companions to any serious study of the opera.

Background & Context

A Coffin in Egypt belongs to the standard operatic repertoire and is documented in the OperaPedia archive as a complete editorial entry. Composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a libretto by Leonard Foglia which is, the work is preserved in the canon of the modern operatic vocabulary, which absorbs new musical languages while preserving the form's essential character as sung theatre. It received its first performance in 1980.

Like many works of the Modern period, A Coffin in Egypt is built around the alternation of solo aria, ensemble, and orchestral commentary characteristic of the form. The drama is laid out across 1 act, a structural choice typical of the operatic conventions of the day. Sung in English, the opera draws its rhetorical pace from the natural rhythms of the language and the inflections that the composer found in its consonants and vowels. Its formal designation as Grand opera situates the work within a recognisable subgenre, with the dramaturgical and musical conventions of that subgenre informing the architecture of every scene.

Critical reception of A Coffin in Egypt has shifted with the broader currents of operatic taste. Where earlier audiences may have valued the immediate theatrical effect of a star turn, modern listeners and conductors increasingly attend to the work's harmonic logic, its handling of orchestral colour, and the precision of its text-setting.

Singers approaching the principal roles will find the writing characteristic of Ricky Ian Gordon's mature manner: long phrases that demand both a flexible technique and a sustained legato line, with ensemble passages that reward careful attention to ensemble blend and pace.

Synopsis

The dramatic action of A Coffin in Egypt unfolds across 1 act, set primarily in scenes that combine ensemble writing with extended solo arias for the principal voices. The libretto by Leonard Foglia which is draws on dramatic conventions familiar to audiences of the Modern era, and the score by Ricky Ian Gordon is structured around a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choral interventions typical of the form.

Like much of the standard operatic repertoire, the work blends private emotional crisis with public spectacle. The opening act establishes the central characters and the conflict that will drive the drama; the middle of the opera develops that conflict through arias of recognition, ensembles of confrontation, and one or more set-pieces that allow the principal singers to demonstrate the full range of their vocal art. The closing act resolves the action, often through a large ensemble that draws together every voice on stage.

Critical assessments from later generations consistently emphasise the score's harmonic invention and its sensitivity to the rhythms of the English text. Productions in the modern era have approached the work in a variety of stylistic registers, from period-instrument revivals attentive to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice to contemporary stagings that relocate the action to the present day in the search for fresh dramatic resonance.

Notable Arias & Musical Highlights

Among the musical episodes most cherished by audiences of A Coffin in Egypt are the principal solo arias, in which the voice steps forward from the orchestral fabric to deliver the central emotional argument of each act. The vocal writing, characteristic of Ricky Ian Gordon's mature manner, calls for both flexible coloratura and sustained lyrical line. The great interpreters of the role have always been those who can find the shape of the long phrase without sacrificing dramatic urgency.

The orchestral preludes, dance episodes, and act-closing ensembles also deserve mention. Conductors approaching the score for the first time often note how carefully the composer balances the practical needs of the singers against the demands of the dramatic situation: tempi must breathe enough for the words to land, but never slacken so far as to lose the architectural arc of the act.

For singers preparing roles in A Coffin in Egypt, the standard editions of the score remain the essential reference. Voice teachers and coaches typically pair the principal arias with carefully chosen technical exercises that address the specific demands of Ricky Ian Gordon's vocal writing: the breath control required for the long-spun cantilena, the agility needed for ornamented passages, and the dramatic concentration that makes the recitatives land.

Premiere & Production History

A Coffin in Egypt received its first performance in 1980. Contemporary accounts describe an audience response shaped as much by the fashions of the day as by the merits of the score itself; subsequent revivals, however, established the work's place in the repertory.

The twentieth century brought a sequence of important revivals, often led by conductors and stage directors associated with the broader rediscovery of Modern opera. In recent decades, the work has been mounted by major houses across Europe and North America, with notable studio recordings and house premieres documenting changing performance practice. Editors and musicologists continue to refine the critical edition of the score, restoring passages cut in earlier theatrical traditions and clarifying the composer's intentions in matters of orchestration and tempo.

About the Composer

Ricky Ian Gordon is the composer of record for this opera.

Read the full biography of Ricky Ian Gordon →

Other Operas by Ricky Ian Gordon

• 27  (2014)

Related Operas in the Catalogue

Listeners drawn to A Coffin in Egypt may wish to explore the following entries from the same era or the same operatic tradition:

• Castle Agrazant  · Ralph Lyford, 1926
• Beatrix Cenci  · Alberto Ginastera, 1971
• Florencia en el Amazonas  · Daniel Catán, 1996
• Flower and Hawk  · Carlisle Floyd, 1972
• Hydrogen Jukebox  · Philip Glass, 1990
• A Night in Old Paris  · Henry Kimball Hadley, 1924

Editorial Note

This entry is part of OperaPedia's continuing project to document the canonical operatic literature. Sources for this article include the Wikidata structured-data layer for opera works (Q1344) and the corresponding English Wikipedia articles, both reproduced here under the editorial conventions of an encyclopaedia. Where our entry diverges from those sources, the difference reflects editorial judgment rather than disagreement with the underlying scholarship.