The third video in our Staying Alive series features soprano Madison Leonard singing the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline.
In the Letter Aria from the first act of the opera, Emmeline has gone to work in the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, to support her impoverished family back in Maine. Alone in her boarding house room at night, she writes a letter to her parents about how she misses them.
Emmeline is interrupted by Maguire, the factory manager, calling to her from beneath her window. Emmeline struggles to understand his intentions and her own needs.
To see the full world premiere production of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline from Santa Fe Opera, click below for the PBS Great Performances broadcast from 1996.
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