- Virgil Thomson
The Mother of Us All (1947)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 1(pic)1(ca)2(bcl)1/2210/perc.hp/pf/str
- tpt/perc/pf(cel).org[hmn]/vn.vc
- SATB chorus
- dramatic Soprano, Countertenor, 2 Basses, 3 Mezzo sopranos, lyric Tenor, 3 Tenors, 2 Baritones, lyric Soprano, 3 Bass Baritones, Alto, high Baritone, Soprano
- 1 hr 44 min
- Libretto by Gertrude Stein.
- English
- 16th May 2025, The Woman's Club of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
- 17th May 2025, The Woman's Club of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
Programme Note
Reduced orchestration available:
tpt/perc/pf(cel).org[hmn]/vn.vc
Cast List:
Synopsis:
A pageant centering around the life and political ideals of Susan B. Anthony, with real and imagined characters.
View Full Score - Act II
tpt/perc/pf(cel).org[hmn]/vn.vc
Cast List:
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, a noble and consecrated woman, dressed in Act I, Scene 2, as a Quakeress, with cape and bonnet; elsewhere, in the style of 1870. As a statue she wears the garnet velvet gown with fichu of rose-point lace that Miss Anthony herself wore in her later years, a gift from the ladies of Washington, D. C.: Dramatic Soprano
ANNE, her confidant and devoted friend, wears richer costumes of 1870: Contralto
GERTRUDE S., a cheerful stocky woman of middle age wearing a full-cut but plain modern velvet gown of dark color and a brocaded waistcoat: Soprano
VIRGIL T., a pleasant and efficient master of ceremonies, in modern morning dress (top hat, cutaway coat, striped trousers, gardenia: Baritone
THE VIP (Very Important Persons):
DANIEL WEBSTER, Bass
ANDREW JOHNSON, Tenor
THADDEUS STEVENS, Tenor
Dressed as political dignitaries of the 1850's. Andrew Johnson is sad, complaining and pathetic. Thaddeus Stevens, his political enemy, blustering man. Daniel Webster, dignified, almost pompous, has the gestures characteristic of 19th century orators.
JO THE LOITERER, Tenor; and CHRIS THE CITIZEN, Baritone
Recently discharged Civil War soldiers dressed in the civilian style of 1865, but still wearing some of their military clothing. Jo wears a black suit at his wedding.
INDIANA ELLIOT, young, pretty, provincial, dressed in the style of 1860. At her wedding she wears a white dress and a bridal veil: Contralto
ANGEL MORE, former sweetheart of Daniel Webster, now dead—part angel, part ghost and part ingénue—in a pale pink and blue dress of about 1845. She wears a small hat with a short white veil, and tiny wings spring from her shoulders: Light Lyric Soprano
HENRIETTA M., a feminist of 1890 in mannish clothes.
HENRY B., a somberly poetic gentleman of 1870 in formal dark clothes, Bass-Baritone
ANTHONY COMSTOCK, a forceful Victorian capitalist with sideburns, dressed in the style of 1890: Bass
JOHN ADAMS, romantic tenor, presumably John Quincy Adams. He wears an ornate costume of 1825 with a beaver stove-pipe hat: Romantic Tenor
CONSTANCE FLETCHER, a gracious and beautiful lady of 1905-10, charmingly tactful, a peace-maker. She has trouble with her eyes and in the last scene wears dark glasses: High Mezzo-Soprano
GLOSTER HEMING, Baritone; and ISABEL WENTWORTH, Mezzo-Soprano
Intellectuals of 1890-1900, he in knickerbockers, she in bicycling clothes.
ANNA HOPE, feminist of 1900: Contralto
LILLIAN RUSSELL, wears picture hats, long gloves and feather boas, with several changes of showy costume, all from the epoch of 1890-1910: Lyric Soprano
JENNY REEFER, a comical feminist, outspoken and opinionated, a close friend of Anne and Susan B.: Mezzo-Soprano
ULYSSES S. GRANT, also opinionated, in dress uniform: Bass-Baritone
HERMAN ATLAN, a French painter of 1860, young, attractive, elegant, poetic: High Baritone
DONALD GALLUP, a youngish college professor in the tweeds of 1920. As a vision in Act II, sc. 2, he wears academic gown and mortar-board cap: Baritone
A.A. and T.T., Page boys or postillions. They also constitute, if desired, a corps de ballet. There can be as many of them as needed.
NEGRO MAN and NEGRO WOMAN
Rural labor costumes. 1860-70
INDIANA ELLIOT'S BROTHER, A middle-western farmer of 1870, wearing farm boots, Sunday suit and a wide felt hat. He carries a riding crop: Bass Baritone
Synopsis:
A pageant centering around the life and political ideals of Susan B. Anthony, with real and imagined characters.
View Full Score - Act II
Media
The Mother of Us All, Act I: Scene I, "Yes, I was"
The Mother of Us All, Act II: Scene III, "The vote!"
The Mother of Us All Suite: Prelude
The Mother of Us All Suite: Cold Weather
The Mother of Us All, Act I: Scene V, "Will they remember?"
The Mother of Us All Suite: A Political Meeting
The Mother of Us All Suite: Hymns
Scores
Full Score - Act II
Features
- Independent Repertoire: American History and Politics
- The rich, complex, and often tumultuous history of American politics has been a key concern for many American composers. Their political engagement ranges from earnest celebration of national triumph to sobering investigations of the painful past. These works help us better understand our current realities through the sounds of our history.
Reviews
With its stylized (almost abstract) interweaving of the romantic and public lives of its characters — its account of personal and political achievement as both resulting from endless, trudging struggle — the piece remains as fresh as ever. Each time I see it, it feels like it’s been ripped from the day’s headlines.
10th February 2020
Thomson...put into THE MOTHER OF US ALL some of the most gorgeous music he ever produced. The score is an effective pastiche of styles, using atypical chord progressions and a gleeful fluidity of rhythm. The approach makes an excellent match for [Gertrude] Stein's words, full as they are of non-sequiturs and even the odd punch line. The composer's orchestrations are meticulously crafted, elegant and inventive.
Thomson's THE MOTHER OF US ALL [is] an opera full of emblems. His is a decorative score [with its] mix of the homespun and the perennial in the way its sturdy marches and tweedy hymns seem instantly familiar. The libretto presents a stately, free-form biography of Susan B. Anthony, written in Stein's famously laundered language. Thomson furnished Stein's demanding libretto in an approximated period style, confounding the demands of avant-garde music theater with what he called 'an evocation of 19th-century America, with its gospel hymns and cocky marches, its sentimental ballads, waltzes, "darn-fool ditties and intoned sermons." It's a whackily didactic opera [and] it was disarmingly fun.
The big draw of this summer's schedule [was] "The Mother of Us All," Virgil Thomson's collaboration with Gertrude Stein that memorializes Susan B. Anthony's struggle to win the vote for women. "The Mother of Us All" demands an off-kilter production to match Stein's free-associative text and Thomson's cheery sampler of American folk styles, hymns, marches and reveries, underpinned with his characteristically mischievous wit.
The cast is vast...Stein's historically fluid cast of characters-John Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, Daniel Webster among them-creates a weird alternate reality, sometimes interacting maniacally, sometimes sitting in what seems like a vast group therapy session. For all of Stein's non sequiturs, her portrait of Anthony and her struggle proves oddly touching and compelling, both in the quirky humor and sometimes desperate passion of the piece. Christopher Alden [met] the demand with a production that is endearingly wacky [with] a circusy atmosphere. The orchestra, conducted by Stewart Robinson, gave Thomson's score a warm, zesty, well-paced reading.