(2001-2004)
Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Gary Bachlund & Marilyn Barnett
After the stories of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."
In two acts for eighteen soli (playing multiple parts) and chamber orchestra
Act One
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Childhood Dreams ( Alice's Fall into Wonderland )
iii. Childhood Dreams
Alice
Well, what is the use of a book,
without pictures or conversations?
[Alice awards the marionette rabbit the "Order of the Daisy Chain," then yawns again and stretches out, ready for a nap. She sleeps. The White Rabbit appears from behind the boat.]
White Rabbit
All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to guide.
Alice! A childish story take,
And, with a gentle hand,
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-off land.
All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to guide.
[Big Tom, the Christ Church clock, strikes to half-hour. Startled, the White Rabbit checks his watch. Alice awakens in time to see him.]
White Rabbit
Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!
I shall be too late! I shall be too late!
[Carefully he replaces the watch in his waistcoat pocket. The White Rabbit makes his way to the rabbit hole, dropping his gloves and his fan in his haste, and disappears. Alice picks them up and runs after him. She follows him down the rabbit hole. The riverbank disappears. Alice's fall into Wonderland occurs in slow motion. Alice lands in a hall and spies the White Rabbit.]
Alice's fall into Wonderland occurs in a staged slow motion, as the scenic elements move about as determined by the director and designer. Musically, the fall includes oddities such as the similar descent by diatonic steps and chromatic half steps [ms. 126] and a sweet reprise of the divisi strings developing the "golden afternoon" theme.
White Rabbit
Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!
[Alice tries to follow but runs into a door which mysteriously has closed behind him. A ballet of doors move in front of and behind Alice; gradually they recede. Meanwhile, very slowly and unperceived by Alice, water rises all around her.]
This ballet of doors in in 5/8, for many of the themes and motives in the opera are based on the number five. Here two measures are grouped together to form a section of ten beats in length, three comprising a six-bar phrase. The passacaglia theme which underlies this is a single measure long, stubbornly retaining its E natural even as the cadence in F-sharp insists on an E-sharp as the dominant's major third.
To continue to the next section, click HERE.
Adapted from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and his additional letters,
by Marilyn Barnett and Gary Bachlund
2001, 2004
Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Gary Bachlund (BMI), Monrovia. All international rights reserved
