The Cervantes Suite

I. Cervantes y Don Quijote contemplan los molinos de viento (Allemande)
Cervantes and Don Quijote Contemplate the Windmills

Brendan Evans, guitar

II. Cervantes monta a Rocinante por sus sueños (Arch form)
Cervantes Rides Rocinante Through His Dreams

Guy Powell, guitar

III. Cervantes y Dulcinea bailan en los campos por la noche (Minuet and Trio)
Cervantes and Dulcinea Dance in the Fields at Night

Paul Psarras, guitar

IV. Cervantes estudia la brujería del sabio Frestón (Rondo)
Cervantes Studies the Sorcery of the Clever Frestón

Elliot Simpson, guitar

IV. Cervantes da la espada a los cueros de vino
Cervantes Puts the Wineskins to the Sword

Mike Roberts, guitar

VI. Cervantes oye los suspiros de los amantes (Sarabande)
Cervantes Hears the Sighs of the Lovers

Stefan Cwik, guitar

VII. Cervantes y Sancho discuten el arte de gobernar una ínsula (Fugue)
Cervantes and Sancho Discuss the Art of Governing an Island

Zac Selissen, guitar

I Will Sing of Your Love, When Will You Come To Me?

Brendan Evans, guitar
Guy Powell, guitar
Paul Psarras, guitar
Elliot Simpson, guitar
Mike Roberts, guitar
Stefan Cwik, bass guitar
Zac Selissen, guitar

Cuentos de Eva Luna

Prologue: Entramos
First Interlude: Había una vez
Second Interlude: Véndeme un pasado
Epilogue: Por fin amaneció
Prologue Reprise

Andréa Alfaro, mezzo-soprano
Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, cello
Zac Selissen, guitar
Mike Roberts, charango

Program Notes

The Cervantes Suite

This was the World Premiere of the complete Cervantes Suite, which I composed between 2004 and 2007 in honor of a curious series of events which occurred within a period of a few months: the gift of a new translation of Don Quijote (by Cervantes), a new guitar (built by a man named Cervantes), and a new apartment (on Cervantes Blvd.).

I Will Sing of Your Love, When Will You Come to Me?

Following is the text from the original version of the piece (for soprano, woodwind quintet, contrabass, and percussion), which was premiered by the SFCM New Music Ensemble in December 2006. The text is excerpted from Psalms 101 and 102.

I will sing of your love and your justice;
to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.
...when will you come to me?

I will walk in my house with blameless heart.
I will set before my eyes no vile thing.
...when will you come to me?

Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry...come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me...

For my days vanish like smoke;
my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
...I am reduced to skin and bones.

...when will you come to me?

I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake...like a bird alone on a roof.
All day long my enemies taunt me...
use my name as a curse.

Hear my prayer, O Lord.

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain...

I will sing of your love and your justice...
Your years go on through all generations.

...when will you come to me?

Cuentos de Eva Luna

I set passages of Isabel Allende's radiant prose to music for a one-act adaptation of three Allende short stories, which premiered at UC Berkeley in March 2005 under the direction of Nina Billone (who selected the excerpts). Their concert debut—at Zac Selissen’s graduate recital last spring—called for somewhat grander proportions than their original supporting role in the theater, and that is the version we present to you this evening.

Following is my translation of the words:

1) Prologue: Entramos

We entered a great room
Hawthorne logs burning in the fireplace
And a high bed
Covered with the lightest comforter in the world
And a mosquito net hanging from the ceiling
White as a bridal veil.

He drew near me with bold steps
And proceeded to kiss me
As if in a romance novel.
We kept caressing each other
And whispering those words
Only new lovers dare pronounce,
Because they are still immune to
The banality of sweet nothings.

That night, and every night thereafter
We made love with unremitting passion
Until the timbers of the house took on
the refulgent glow of gold.
After that, for a time, we loved
more simply
Until that love was spent
And fell apart in tatters.

Or perhaps things didn’t happen
that way.

2) First Interlude: Había una vez

We entered a great room,
Hawthorne logs burning in the fireplace.

Once upon a time there was a woman
Whose trade was the telling of tales.
She went everywhere
Hawking her wares:
Stories of adventures, of suspense
Of horror or of lust
All at a fair price.

3) Second Interlude: Véndeme un pasado

He arrived exhausted, cradling his gun
Covered with the dust of faraway places
“So: sell me a past, because mine is full of blood
and lamentations
And I can’t bear it through this life.
I’ve been in so many battles
That I’ve lost myself entirely—
Even my mother’s name,” he said.

4) Epilogue: Por fin amaneció

We entered a great room…
White like a bridal veil.

All afternoon and all night
She crafted a noble past for that soldier.
It was a lengthy history
Because she wanted to give him a storybook ending
And she had to invent it entirely
From his birth to the present day.

At last day broke
And in the first light of dawn
She realized that the smell of sadness
Had turned to mist.
She sighed, closed her eyes,
And felt her spirit empty
Like a newborn child’s.

5) Prologue Reprise

After that, for a time, we loved more simply
Until that love was spent
And fell apart in tatters.

Listen (click and scroll down)
Buy (Theatrical Version)