Cold Sassy Tree
Music by Carlisle Floyd · at Houston Grand Opera
Cold Sassy Tree is an opera composed by Carlisle Floyd, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns. Cold Sassy Tree was Floyd's tenth opera. It had its world premiere on April 14, 2000, at the Houston Grand Opera, with a production staged by Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford and conducted by Patrick Summers. The original cast included Dean Peterson, Patricia Racette, Diane Alexander, Beth Clayton, Margaret Lloyd and John McVeigh. The production was the Houston Grand Opera's 25th new opera, and was created in a co-commission between the company and opera companies in Austin, Baltimore, North Carolina and San Diego. Floyd came to the project by way of a sibling. "The book was given to me by my sister, because she thought that somebody from this part of the world, the southeast, would probably fully appreciate it,” he said in an interview following the Houston premiere. “But, everywhere I have traveled in this country, people have read Cold Sassy Tree and the standard reaction from everybody, male and female, is 'I loved it.' Obviously, its appeal goes far beyond regional boundaries. What appealed to me most about it in terms of its operatic possibilities were the very vivid, rich characters. And it is also rich in comic incidents.” Cold Sassy Tree has been staged by regional opera countries around the United States.
A two-disk CD recording featuring the original Houston Grand Opera cast was released in 2005 by Albany Records. The Houston performance was videotaped for television, but it was never broadcast or released on DVD.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Cold Sassy Tree (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Carlisle Sessions Floyd (June 11, 1926 – September 30, 2021) was an American composer primarily known for his operas. These stage works, for which he wrote not only the music but also the librettos, typically engage with themes from the American South, particularly the Post-civil war South, the Great Depression and rural life. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary rural Tennessee, and written for a Southern dialect. It was premiered at Florida State University in 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. When it was staged at the New York City Opera the following year, the reception was initially mixed; some…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Carlisle Floyd", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Carlisle Floyd
- Bilby's Doll (1928)
- Flower and Hawk (1972)