For the feminine given name, see Susannah (given name).
Susannah
Opera by Carlisle Floyd
Church scene in a performance of the English Touring Opera in 2008, with Andrew Slater as Blitch and Donna Bateman in the title role
Librettist
Floyd
Language
English
Based on
Susannah and the Elders
Premiere
February 24, 1955 (1955-02-24)
Florida State University
Susannah is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending. The story focuses on 18-year-old Susannah Polk, an innocent girl who is targeted as a sinner in the small mountain town of New Hope Valley, in the Southern American state of Tennessee.
The opera was awarded the New York Music Critics Circle Award for Best New Opera in 1956 and was chosen to represent American music and culture at the World's Fair at Brussels in 1958, with a production (by Frank Corsaro) that featured Phyllis Curtin and Norman Treigle. It received its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1999, with Renée Fleming singing the title role, Jerry Hadley singing Sam and Samuel Ramey singing Blitch. Ramey also recorded the complete opera with Cheryl Studer as Susannah and Jerry Hadley as Sam. Other well-known sopranos who have portrayed the heroine have included Lee Venora, Joy Clements, Faith Esham, Maralin Niska, Nancy Shade, Diana Soviero, Karan Armstrong, Kelly Kaduce and Phyllis Treigle (opposite Michael Devlin as Blitch).
Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, second to Porgy and Bess, and celebrated its 50th anniversary with a performance on the very stage where it premiered February 24, 1955, in Ruby Diamond Auditorium at Florida State University. At the first performance, Carlisle Floyd was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Florida State.
It has been speculated that the opera was inspired by McCarthyism, and threat of institutional Hollywood communist invasion of America during the early 1950s. The opera also contains many feminist themes that had not been widely explored in popular culture at the time of the opera's writing. Floyd said this opera was meant to be different from a traditional opera.[1]
The music is largely characterized by Appalachian folk melodies. Also included are some Protestant hymns and some traditional classical music. A particularly prominent part of the opera is Susannah's soaring and melancholy aria in Act II, "The Trees on the Mountain", which is similar to Appalachian folk tunes but in fact Floyd's own composition. In 2019, Rhiannon Giddens released a vernacular version of "Trees on the Mountains" on her album, There Is No Other.
^Rupert Bottenberg, (21 April 1999), Definitely not the Beverly Hillbillies: Carlisle Floyd's Susannah puts backwoods Americana on the opera stage, Montreal Mirror
Susannah is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida...
Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine are two British fashion advisors, presenters and authors. They originally joined to write a weekly style column...
Susannah Glanville-Hearson, known professionally as Susannah Fielding, is an English actress. She won the 2014 Ian Charleson Award for her portrayal of...
Susannah Caroline Constantine (born 3 June 1962) is an English former TV fashion journalist, writer, style advisor, television presenter, author and clothes...
Susannah Harker (born Susannah Owens; 26 April 1965) is an English film, television, and theatre actress. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990...
Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939 – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various...
Joie Susannah Lee (/ʒwɑː/) is an American screenwriter, film producer and actress. Lee was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Jacqueline (née...
to the book: Susannah at Boarding School, Susannah of the Yukon and Susannah Rides Again. In 1939 it was adapted into the film Susannah of the Mounties...
Susannah Cahalan (born January 30, 1985) is an American writer and author, known for writing the memoir Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, about her hospitalization...
Susannah Grant (born January 4, 1963) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Grant was born in New York City. She studied at Amherst College...
Susannah Jane Corbett (born 10 August 1968) is an English actress and author. Her acting career began in 1991 and she has performed on television, film...
Susannah Melvoin (born January 26, 1964) is an American vocalist and songwriter. Melvoin is best known for her association with Prince in the mid-1980s...
Susannah Walker Wise is an English television and stage actress. She trained as an actress at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating...
Alfred returns to Montana and proposes to Susannah, but she declines. Tristan returns home, where Susannah finds him weeping over Samuel's grave. She...
Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation...
Susannah Blaxill is an Australian botanical artist. Blaxill was born in 1954 and currently[when?] lives in Australia, but lived in England for about 17...
Susannah Spurgeon (née Thompson; 15 January 1832 – 22 October 1903) was a British author and wife of Charles Spurgeon. Susannah Thompson married Charles...
used to date his college friend Gary Shepherd. Gary eventually marries Susannah. Michael's business partner is Elliot Weston, who has a troubled marriage...
Susannah Morrisey (also Farnham) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, played by Karen Drury. The character debuted...
Susannah Breslin is an American journalist and writer. She is the editor of Forbes's Vices section. She has been a reporter for the Playboy TV program...
Susannah Mushatt Jones (July 6, 1899 – May 12, 2016) was an American supercentenarian who was, aged 116 years and 311 days, the world's oldest living person...
Susannah Clare Goshko CMG is a British civil servant in His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. She is the British High Commissioner to Canada, replacing Susan...
Susannah Martin (née North, baptized September 30, 1621 – July 19, 1692) was one of fourteen women executed for the suspicion of practicing witchcraft...
Susannah M. Whipps (formerly known as Susannah Whipps Lee) is a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, first sworn in on January 7, 2015...
Susannah Fowle (born 1958 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian actress of stage and screen. She is best known for her role as Laura Tweedle Rambotham...
Susanna(h) Jones may refer to: Susannah Mushatt Jones (1899–2016), American supercentenarian Susannah Makeig-Jones (1881–1945), pottery designer Susanna...
Susannah Taylor or Susannah Cook (29 March 1755 – June, 1823) - also known by the sobriquet Madame Roland or Dame Roland - was a British socialite and...
Global Information