THE GLASS WOMAN
Sorrel Hays
About this work:
THE GLASS WOMAN is a three act opera based on the true life of Anna Houston, a rags to riches to rags story couched in the Americana of Sacred Harp sing, medicine show patter, early rail travel, blues, and lyrical love songs. Annie had nine husbands, amassed a glass collection that is now housed in the Houston Museum in Chattanooga. Other famous women collectors, such as Peggy Guggenheim, guide and chide the young Annie from her beginnings on an Arkansas farm, to New York as a buyer for Macy's, to Chattanooga where she owned a hat shop, was a real estate mogul, then a bag lady collector of antiques. A fire threatened to destroy her glassware, which hung from the ceiling of a barn she built herself. She caught the glassware with her bare hands, and saved most of the collection, though landed in hospital, and died several years later in Chattanooga, destitute.Lyrics are by Sorrel Hays and Sally Ordway. Book is by Sally Ordway and Nancy Rhodes.
Version: not yet orchestrated
Year composed: 1993
Duration: 02:45:80
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater:Opera, More than One Act, with Chorus
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 2 Soprano, 4 Mezzo-Soprano, 2 Tenor, 1 Baritone, 1 Bass-Baritone, 2 S, 2 A, 2 T, 2 B, 1 Prerecorded Sound (Tape/CD/Other)
Instrumentation notes: Optional tape of music boxes.