House of Winter: Opera in One Act

Abstract

House of Winter is a one-act dramatic musical composition, approximately 70 minutes in duration, with a libretto written by Dr. John Patrick Pazdziora. It is scored for four singers and chamber orchestra including strings, woodwinds, harpsichord, and frame drum. The opera combines music and text with thematic material evocative of Scottish folk songs in a narrative exploration of the experience of an elderly woman facing the end of her life and reflecting on her lost cultural traditions and identity through encroaching dementia.