Bilby's Doll

Bilby's Doll is an opera in three acts composed by Carlisle Floyd. The libretto is based on the 1928 American novel A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes.

Bilby's Doll
Opera by Carlisle Floyd
The composer in 2008
LibrettistFloyd
LanguageEnglish
Based onA Mirror for Witches
by Esther Forbes
Premiere
February 27, 1976 (1976-02-27)
Houston Grand Opera

Bilby's Doll was Floyd's eighth opera. It had its premiere on February 27, 1976, at the Houston Grand Opera in a production by David Pountney with sets by Ming Cho Lee. The original cast, conducted by Christopher Keene, included Catherine Malfitano, Joy Davidson, Thomas Paul, and Jack Trussel. Houston Grand's general director David Glockley commissioned the work in honor of the US Bicentennial.[1][2]

Synopsis

Bilby's Doll is the story of Doll Bilby, a French orphan whose spirituality and imagination collide with the hostility and practical ideals of the Puritan colony where she is raised by her foster parents.

Doll was brought to Massachusetts from France by Jared Bilby, her foster father. She declines a marriage proposal from Titus Thumb, a young ministerial student, saying that her natural parents were burned as witches in France and she worries that she might also become a witch. Instead, she meets and marries a man who pretends he is a demon, but who is later revealed to be the estranged and opportunistic son of the minister Zelley, Doll's friend and supporter.

Although she is at first devastated by the revelation of her lover as a mortal, Doll's belief that her husband is a demon is restored as she dies giving birth in a jail cell.[1]

Roles
Role Voice type Premiere cast,
27 February 1976[3]
Jared Bilby (a former sea captain) bass Thomas Paul
Doll Bilby (the Bilbys' foster daughter) soprano Catherine Malfitano
Hannah Bilby (Jared Bilby's wife) mezzo-soprano Joy Davidson
Deacon Thumb (a prosperous farmer) tenor Thomas Page
Titus Thumb (his son) baritone Alan Titus
Mr. Zelley (a clergyman) bass-baritone Tom Fox
Goody Goochy (the village midwife-undertaker) contralto Nell Evans
Mrs. Thumb (wife of Deacon Thumb) soprano Barrie Smith
Shad tenor Jacque Trussel
Mr. Increase Mather bass David Cornell
Silas (the tavern keeper) baritone Jon Enloc
Town Crier tenor
Sorrow (twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs Thumb) soprano
Labour (twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs Thumb) soprano
First Suitor (suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby) tenor
Second Suitor (suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby) baritone
Mr. Kleaver (the village doctor) baritone
Captain Buzzey (the local constable) baritone
Young Boy non-singing
Goody Greene non-singing
A Servant Boy non-singing
Judge Bride non-singing
Judge Lollimour non-singing
People of Cowan Corners and Salem, Deputies, Judges' retinue
gollark: It's also just something people agree is shiny and expensive™, but it's been shiny and expensive™ longer.
gollark: Gold isn't "inherently valuable" either.
gollark: It is basically baked in increasing inequality.
gollark: Proof of stake bad however.
gollark: "LINE-1"

References
  1. Carlisle Floyd: Bilby's Doll at Boosey & Hawkes
  2. "Houston's Doll" by William Bender, TIME (March 8, 1976)
  3. Margaret Ross Griffel (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. p. 50.
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