A Dangerous Man for baritone and piano
Elizabeth Vercoe
About this work:
This is a highly dramatic, staged monodrama about John Brown, abolitionist fighter in Kansas and instigator of the watershed events at Harpers Ferry in 1859, said by W.E.B. DuBois to have begun the war to end slavery. The texts include letters by Brown himself, commentary by contemporaries such as Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Emerson and Lincoln, along with excerpts from the Kansas Slave Code, and verbatim accounts of his trial. The piece is meant as a cautionary tale with a clear message for us today.
A Dangerous Man was commissioned by the Center for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University and premiered there in 1992 by baritone Kenneth Lee and pianist Jeffrey Wood. (See http://elizabethvercoe.com/adangerousman.html)
Year composed: 1990
Duration: 00:35:00
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater:Monodrama
Instrumentation: ,1 Piano soloist(s), ,1 Baritone soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: May be staged or in concert. Pianist requires several small percussion instruments.