From “Positions 1956”
Duet for Mezzo or Soprano, Baritone, and piano
Lyrics by Michael Korie
COMMISSIONED: by American Opera Projects
PREMIERE: December 2010, Galapagos Arts Space, Dumbo, Brooklyn NY; Katrina Thurman, soprano, Michael Zegarski, baritone; Mila Henry, piano
DURATION: fifteen minutes
PUBLISHER: All Conrad Cummings works are self-published; contact him here
INSTRUMENTATION: mezzo or soprano, baritone, and piano
Excerpt from Jesse Blumberg, Hai-Ting Chinn, and Charity Wicks’s performance at the National Opera Center:
What a pleasure it is to revisit Positions 1956! A few years ago I was very fortunate to be cast in a three-act staging at UrbanArias in Washington, D.C. The excerpts we’re performing tonight come from “the sex act,” as it were, which was actually written by Conrad and Michael Korie over two decades before (certainly before I personally knew anything about this particular subject material!). For me, this piece craftily negotiates the boundary between ridiculous and sublime, with serious social commentary lying just beneath its humorous surface. I will also say what a relief it is to perform this music in concert version tonight, completely vertical and essentially in one Position. The last time I encountered this music, Noah Himmelstein’s wonderful direction had us vertical, horizontal, chasing one another around a bed on all fours, you name it. And it’s a particular pleasure to partner with Hai-Ting Chinn, a dear friend with whom I’ve had the honor to perform many, many times, but not in Conrad’s music until tonight. About a year ago, Hai-Ting and I were co-starring in Opera Omnia’s Return of Ulysses, so we’ve been joking that this Positions could be thought of as Ulysses and Penelope’s 21st anniversary. OK, maybe that’s a stretch, but in a concert full of reunions, anything goes, right? Many thanks to Charity for anchoring this program so beautifully, and of course to Conrad, for bringing us all together tonight.
—Baritone Jesse Blumberg
From “Positions 1956”
Music: Conrad Cummings
Lyrics: Michael Korie, adapted from marriage manuals of the 1950s
1. The Non-Virgin Bride
The non-virgin bride,
The bride no longer a virgin,
May have problems when she marries.
Having tried it, she is likely to think
Intercourse repugnant.
Having tried it on a sofa,
On the back seat of a car,
No wonder she did not like it.
On a blanket in the park,
In the back seat of a Dodge,
At the drive-in, on the sofa,
On the sand-dune, in the Dodge,
On the backseat with the steamy windows
Blankets, zippers, toe-nails, Jockey shorts.
Having tried it, she is likely to fear
She is ill or frigid.
No wonder she does not like it,
The non-virgin bride.
2. Foreplay
Women vary as to foreplay,
Some like less play, some like more play.
Stroking of the bosom, licking of the nipples
May occasion either apathy or ripples.
Probing of the cervix, pressure with the penis
Nibbling at an earlobe, may awake a Venus,
Kissing and caressing may be seventh heaven
As for cunnilingus, turn to Chapter Seventeen.
Though considered safe and clean,
Women vary in hygiene.
3. The Bride Must Remember
Her husband is eager to please her,
Of course, he loves her.
But he is a man,
A man who wants her.
The bride must remember
In each fiber of her core,
She must help and hew
To her duty and grave obligation.
For he is a man.
The pulse throbbing in his veins
Is the pounding of his elemental reproductive instinct!
He is alive with desire!
His organ must respond
In positions of intercourse
In the holy marriage bond!
He is alive with desire!
His organ must respond
She is equipped for pleasure
But hers is not essential.
Without his, her ecstasy is inconsequential.
His is alive with desire!
His organ must respond
In positions of intercourse
In the marriage bond!
He is alive with desire.
4. Anal Intercourse
A man may wish his wife
To engage in anal intercourse.
She should not give in.
He may wish his wife
To explore the possibility.
She must not give in.
His wish is an expression of latent neurosis.
To acquiesce would only encourage psychosis.
The wife must urge the man
To engage a good psychiatrist.
He should not give in.
She should not give in.
5. Sideways
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
For him, this is sideways.
For her, it is the stars.
A galaxy of pleasure,
A milky way of ecstasy,
An orchestra fortissimo.
A mountaintop of love.
Her skin is flushed and warm.
Her pupils glaze and dilate.
Her nostrils are distended.
He basks in her fulfillment.
She is in heaven,
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
And he has brought her,
To this, her highest climax!
For her, this is sideways.
For him, it is the stars!
Video of the complete premiere performance with Hai-Ting Chinn, Jesse Blumberg, and Charity Wicks at the National Opera Center:
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – RUSSELL PLATT
DC THEATRE SCENE
“This is what theatre and certainly opera should be but rarely is.”
WASHINGTON POST