Gerald Plain

Present Activity   

"Searching for Polly" is now being sent to orchestras.  It is for five major voices and orchestra.

Polly, Pretty Polly, is based on the 300-year old murder-ballad of Pretty Polly.

The libretto of the opera, by best-selling-author Sena Jeter Naslund, is precise, evocative, and engaging in its handling of the flow of the narrative.  The larger picture:  Act 1, The woodland introduction of five very different characters, each with blossoming hopes or stealthy plans,  Act 2, The convergence of the characters and villagers at a dance; Polly’s disappearance; [Intermission]  Act 3, In the nighttime woods, the searching for, seduction, and murder of Polly, Act 4, The court in the woods where Willie is tried for the murder of Pretty Polly, plus a Coda.

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A growing number of my scores are on view at the Music and Dance Library; School of Music; Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio  

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I am now promoting a work I wrote in 1980.  It won the Prince Pierre of Monaco Musical Composition Prize, 1980 and was performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo, Lawrence Foster, conducting and Ronald Patterson, Violin.  I am going to rename it “Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra.”  The new score is completed.

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I am now working on my new opera, Abraham Lincoln Visits Farmington Plantation.