First Glimpse 2022 - To Make Nature Home
Music by Tidtaya Sinutoke
Lyrics by Naomi Matlow, adapted from a monologue by Tidtaya Sinutoke
Aaren Rivard, tenor
Kelly Horsted, piano
A Buddhist teaching about embracing change and impermanence in life.
Text:
MONK:
THERE WAS ONCE A THAI MONK
WHO WALKED THROUGH THE FOREST.
HE WOULD CAMP BY NIGHT
ALWAYS WHEREVER HE COULD LAY HIS HEAD.
SOMETIMES THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR HIM TO SLEEP AT ALL
BUT WHEN NIGHT WOULD FALL,
HE’D FIND A WAY
TO MAKE NATURE HOME.
AT THE FOOT OF THE HILLS.
UNDER ROCKS OR BY RIVERS,
AND THE GRASS A BLANKET
THAT WRAPPED AROUND HIS BONES.
SOMETIMES IT’S A DANGEROUS PLACE FOR HIM TO REST
BUT HE MADE THE BEST
AND FOUND A WAY
TO MAKE NATURE HOME.
BUT ONE NIGHT THE SKY
DID START
HER THUNDERSTORMING.
BEYOND HIS WILD IMAGINATION,
OF LATE NIGHT DREAMS.
WITH NO CHOICE
BUT TO CAMP
INSIDE THE FOREST DEEP.
WIND SO STRONG
THE TREES COULD FALL.
BUT THE MONK WITHSTOOD IT ALL.
HE AWOKE TO THE SUN.
OLD AND YOUNG LEAVES
LAY ON THE GROUND
WHO SAYS WHICH ONES SURVIVE?
OR WHICH STORM WILL BRING US DOWN?
When bad things happen to us, we tend to think, “why me?”, “this isn’t right.”, “this is impossible”.
But when we look at nature, it’s part of nature.
ALL WE NEED TO DO
IS FIND OUR WAY
TO MAKE NATURE HOME.
Do you know why we were born?
To repay our karma?
No.
To be happy.
Video - Chris Comfort
Audio - Craig Slon
Production Assistant - Joel Kalow
Recorded on location at South Oxford Space, Brooklyn, NY
Created in Cycle 11 of The American Opera Project’s “Composers & the Voice” Fellowship Training Program
C&V Artistic Director: Steven Osgood
Head of Music: Mila Henry
Head of Drama: Matt Gray
Music Directors: Mila Henry, Kelly Horsted, Ron Robinson
http://aopopera.org/composers-voice
Composers & the Voice is made possible in part by generous multi-year awards from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.