Vicki Fingalson, Soprano
"...luscious sound and comedic sensibility..."
CONTACT: vickifingalson@gmail.com
THE BRONTË SISTER: RETROSPECTION
An Art-Song Play
Play by Vicki Fingalson
Music by Wendy Durrwachter
In Spring 2024 I researched and wrote a biographical play about the Brontë sisters - Charlotte, Anne, and Emily. These women are literary trailblazers who lived in 19th-Century Victorian England. Their novels are still among the most-celebrated of their - or any - time period (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). However, my deepest curiosity lies with these women as people - who they were and what experiences they had along their journey. For these purposes, their actual literary output and its analysis or interpretation is not the focus of this theatrical and biographical snapshot. Rather, it is a peek into their personalities, daily lives, and experiences which accompanied them to their place in literary history. The play covers pivotal moments in their lives between 1820 when Ann was a baby through Emily’s & ultimately Anne’s death in 1849.
The poems I chose fit within the context and/or time of the narrative arc of the play and upon which specific events reflect. Each sister sings her own poetry. My goal was for these songs to feel like extensions of the drama and story, and less like separate arts songs dropped into various moments within the show. I wanted the musical moments to feel a bit like opera, but with the more intimate sensibilities of art song.
When possible, the actual words of the Brontë sisters are used from surviving letters and diary entries. Being able to hear their exact thoughts, words, and opinions on events in their lives helps to bring their story into vivid color. This - along with time spent at their home in Haworth (Brontë Parsonage Museum), hiking the moors, reading books, and studying documentaries - has given me the foundation for telling their story from 1820 (Anne’s birth year) to 1849 (Anne’s death year). The songs in this one-act musical play are composed by Wendy Durrwacher, setting the lesser-known poetry of each of the Brontë sisters that have been curated to fit within this story arc and narrative.
The performance of this piece is designed to be flexible - from fully theatrical productions with 3 singing-actors and chamber orchestra, to solo performers with piano in a concert- style setting, and everything in between. It can be used by college voice and opera programs, as well as professional soloists and chamber musicians. Vicki Fingalson and Wendy Durrwachter perform, coach and direct this piece as a stand-alone performance or as an academic residency.
For information,
performance bookings, or rights,
please contact: vickifingalson@gmail.com
