Show Synopsis:
The women in New Hope Valley, Tennessee gossip about Susannah because they are jealous of her beauty and look down on her for being raised by her unruly brother. Reverend Olin Blitch dances with her despite all the gossip. The next day, Susannah bathes naked in a creek and is seen by the elders, who shun her from the church and convince her friend Little Bat to tell everyone she seduced him. Susannah tries to come forward and make a fake confession at church, but ends up running away. Reverend Blitch goes to comfort her and ends up raping her, not knowing she is a virgin. Susannah will not forgive him, and when she tells her brother Sam what happens, he threatens to kill Reverend Blitch. Susannah leaves the town to live on her own.
Character:
Susannah Polk, a beautiful 18-year-old girl who wants to leave New Hope Valley before and feels powerless in the face of persecution.
Song Context:
After the dance, Susannah sits with Little Bat and wonders what could lie beyond the valley in which she lives with her brother and the townspeople who do not care for her.
Fun Facts:
1. This opera is based on the story of Susannah from the Biblical Apocrypha, but set in the southern region of 1950s America to show the negative ramifications of unfounded persecution and reflect the actions of HUAC during the McCarthy era.
2. Susannah is Carlisle Floyd?s best-known opera, and although it holds an esteemed place in American opera, it is also performed by companies outside of the U.S.
3. In 2008, Floyd was the first composer to be included in the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors, during its inaugural year.
4. In this song, as well as others in the opera, Floyd has written the text in a dialect to suggest the location and class of the people in this town.
Ain't it a pretty night?
?The sky's so dark and velvet-like
?And it's all lit up with stars.
?It's like a great big mirror
?Reflectin' fire-flies over a pond. ?
Look at all them stars, Little Bat. ?
The longer y' look the more ya see. ?
The sky seems so heavy with stars
?That it might fall right down out of heaven
?And cover us all up in one big blanket
?Of velvet stitched with diamon's. ?
Ain't it a pretty night.
?Just think, those stars can all peep down ?
An' see way beyond where we can: ?
They can see way beyond them mountains ?
To Nashville and Asheville an' Knoxville. ?
I wonder what it's like out there. ?
Out there- beyond them mountains
?Where the folks talk nice, an' the folks dress nice ?
Like y' see in the mail-order catalogs. ?
I aim to leave this valley some day ?
An' find out fer myself,?
To see all the tall buildin's
?And all the street lights ?
An' to be one o' them folks myself.
?I wonder if I'd get lonesome fer the valley though, ?
Fer the sound of crickets ?
An' the smell of pine straw ?
Fer soft little rabbits an' bloomin' things
?An' the mountains turnin? gold in the fall. ?
But I could always come back ?
If I got homesick fer the valley. ?
So I'll leave it someday an' see fer myself. ?
Someday I'll leave an' then I'll come back ?
When I've seen what's beyond them mountains. ?
Ain't it a pretty night.?
The sky's so heavy with stars tonight?
That it could fall right down out of heaven?
An' cover us up, and cover us up
?In one big blanket of velvet and diamon's.