Caesar and the Mannequin (2020-21)
Miniature opera inspired by Man Ray for three singers and trumpet
29 minutes
Libretto by Susan Galbraith
Commissioned by the Alliance for New Music-Theatre, in association with the Phillips Collection
Inspired by Man Ray's painting, "Shakespearean Equation: Julius Caesar"
Online premiere, August 2021
Cast of Characters
Caesar (baritone)
Mannequin (soprano)
Wo-Man Ray (mezzo-soprano)
trumpet and piccolo trumpet
Synopsis
A museum worker, cleaning out a closet, pulls out a bust of Julius Caesar, disconnected from its head, a mannequin, a trumpet, and a chalkboard. Replacing Caesar's head on the bust, the statue comes alive, and Caesar immediately begins to take charge of the situation. The worker finds that she can, somehow, play the trumpet which she finds in the closet, and Caesar immediately puts its fanfare aspects to use in glorifying himself. But his designs on power are checked by the mannequin, his companion in the closet for who knows how long; being so familiar with Caesar, she is not impressed or intimidated by his power, and undermines his grandiosity at every turn. Enter Wo-Man Ray, possibly the artist, possibly not, of fluid gender, who somehow sets the whole machine in motion. Caesar rises, muses on the nature of power, and then is eventually stuffed back into the closet, but not before predicting his eventual return to the scene.
John Boulanger, baritone (Caesar)
Kelly Curtin, soprano (Mannequin)
Cara Schaefer, mezzo-soprano (Wo-Man Ray)
Susan Rider, trumpet and piccolo trumpet
Filmed at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC newmusictheatre.org
Program Notes
In 2020, Susan Galbraith of the Alliance for New Music-Theatre approached me with a commission for a project entitled "Short Gems" done in association with the Phillips Collection to create and present six short operas based on works in the Phillips.
With Susan, the librettist, we were assigned Man Ray's "Shakespearean Equation: Julius Caesar," part of a series of paintings by the artist based on different Shakespeare plays. Man Ray's image of a bust of Caesar minus its head, surrounded by bric-a-brac and the "equation" 2 + 2 = 22 on a blackboard, opened up immense possibilities for exploring the absurdities of power. Susan and I were very collaborative in forming the scenario. For example, I shared my admiration for the "Street of the Mannequins" exhibition in Paris in the 1920's, in which Man-Ray participated, which eventually led to the creation of the mannequin character. The painting's theme of undercutting power by exposing its absurdities was extremely appealing and timely; indeed, the connections between Donald Trump and Caesar are implicit and sometimes uncomfortably apt. Caesar's final aria, 'You Can't Stick me in a Closet" is, at this writing in January 2022, startlingly relevant.
The musical language covers a wide range, from neo-Baroque to jazz and contemporary classical: the trumpet, with a firm footing in each style, shifts from one to the other with ease.
The original cast gamely participated in a masked COVID-era filming at the Phillips Collection, with the reveal of Man Ray's painting at the end. Susan Rider provided a virtuosic dual trumpet-character role which is incandescent from beginning to end. John Boulanger (Caesar), Kelly Curtin (Mannequin), and Cara Schaefer (Wo-Man Ray), brought their roles to sparkling, gorgeous, and - yes - absurdist life.
The online premiere in 2021 is the first stage in continuing to develop the project with an eye towards a theatrical presentation.
—Andrew Earle Simpson