Mata Hari Letters (2020)
For High Voice and Piano
Duration: 18’
Movement Titles: The dance is a poem | Death is nothing | Mr. Diaghilev doesn’t know what he wants | Dear Nonnie | The inner thoughts of Salome | Flowers, flattery, and money | Monsieur le Juge
First Performance: TBA
Dedication: "Commissioned for Cassandra Black, 2020."
Text: Mata Hari, collected, translated, and adapted by the composer (E)
Publisher: Peermusic Classical
Purchase Sheet Music:
Mata Hari, Lady Macleod p/c: Public Domain portrait (Library of Congress).
Program Note:
The public domain letters of Mata Hari form a compelling portrait of an astonishing person — self-aware, full of life, love, regret, and ambition. I collected a few French-language fragments from her correspondence with her daughter, friends, artistic acquaintances, and, inevitably, her final appeal for the clemency that she was ultimately denied.
The songs were commissioned in 2020 for soprano Cassandra Black.