Safié
Overview
 
Safié is a one act opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer Henry Kimball Hadley
Henry Kimball Hadley
Henry Kimball Hadley was an American composer and conductor.-Life:Hadley was born into a musical family in Somerville, Massachusetts...

. The opera's libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 was written in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 by Edward Oxenford, but its premiere, on April 4, 1909 in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, was given in a German translation by Otto Neitzel
Otto Neitzel
Otto Neitzel was a German composer, pianist, writer on music, and lecturer. Neitzel was born in the town of Falkenburg in Farther Pomerania ....

. Hadley conducted the premiere, and the title role was sung by American soprano Marguerite Lemon.

Safiés full score, in manuscript, is in the collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

, part of the Lincoln Center complex in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

.

Safié, a Persian princess, loves an envoy named Ahmed.
Quotations

Once upon a time there was a pair of pants. They were an essential kind of pants - jeans, naturally, blue but not that stiff, new blue you see so often on the first day of school.

We started being "we" before we were born.

I'm sorry you asked me out, she told him silently. Otherwise maybe I could have liked you.

You would hate this place. Wholesome, all-American people doing sports all day. High fives are common. I even witnessed a group hug. Sports cliches all day long.

I hope these Pants bring you... Courage? No, you have too much of that. Energy? No, you have way too much of that. Not love. You get and give loads as it is. Okay, how 'bout this? I hope they bring you good sense.

And someplace under that, she was sad that people like Bee and Kostos, who had lost everything, were still open to love, and she, who'd lost nothing, was not.

She would just stay here holding Bailey's hand for all time, so Bailey wouldn't be afraid there wasn't enough of it.

Bridget looked down at the Pants, grateful to have them. They meant support and they meant love, just as they'd all vowed at the beginning of the summer. But with Lena right her, right next to her, she almost didn't need them.

Still, the Pants promised us there was time. Nothing would be lost. There was all year if we needed it. We had all the way until next summer, when we would take out the Traveling Pants and, together or apart, begin again. Category:Children's books

 
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