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Abstract

Forward Andy Vores (bio) My composition Cleopatra sets eight poems from Barbara Chase-Riboud's cycle Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra. These are intensely erotic poems in which Cleopatra and Mark Antony map out their passion for each other. The poems I have set are all spoken by Cleopatra, and there is a palpable sense of danger in them—the danger of losing all control, of self-destruction. I particularly like how these poems are, at one and the same time, palpably sensual and poised in their language. At the center of the work, in contrast to the outer songs, is the droll "Beware, beloved" in which Cleopatra spits out, rapid-fire, a list of the twisted "ins and outs" of her lineage. The poems are set in four groups of two, each set of two beginning with declamatory recitative music, and the first two groups of two opening with fiery, thick-textured piano solos. [End Page 897] Andy Vores Andy Vores, who was born in Wales and grew up in England, is Chair of Composition, Theory, and Music History at The Boston Conservatory. From 1999 to 2001 he was Composer-in-Residence to the BankBoston Celebrity Series, and from 2002 to 2005 Composer-in-Residence to the New England Philharmonic. His numerous commissions include Freshwater (The Boston University Opera Institute), Bulldancer (Boston Ballet), Head Down Legs Up (Welsh Arts Council), World Wheel (The Cantata Singers), Bubble (US Mexico Fund for Culture), and Quartet No. 3 (Chamber Music America). A Koussevitsky Fellowship, the Alea III International Composition Competition, the Scottish National Orchestra Ian Whyte Award, and the Tanglewood Prize for Composition—these are but a few of his many awards, fellowships, and prizes. Copyright © 2009 The Johns Hopkins University Press