Album Notes

Conceived as a set of three comic one-act operas, Les Dames à trois...et Piano was written for the three women who appear in them with the composer playing a supporting character from the piano.

The first, Piano Detective takes a ‘film-noire’ approach to a mystery involving the theft of a cadence. The second, Piano Princess, features a princess seeking her own Broadway show. Dismayed at the tales of all the other princesses she knows, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, and Aurora who have their names in marquees all over Times Square, she seeks out Rick, a general all around fairytale handyman, to aid her in her quest to bring about the perfect fairytale. The third, ...And Piano Make Three, is about Sarah and her boyfriend, Richard, who plays the piano. She met him in Central Park while he was exercising his portable Casio keyboard and has been in love with him ever since. However, now that it is a year later, she is beginning to wonder how she can get his attention. He never stops playing the piano — not even long enough to take her to the Rainbow Room and propose. She soon sets out to use every means at her disposal to take on the piano.

The one acts use a variety of musical styles and move from the warm mezzo of Piano Detective to the soaring coloratura of Sarah as she engages in duets with her rival, the grand piano. Thus, the woman’s voice becomes increasingly higher from act to act. In addition to the casting, several other commonalities bind the three acts together. In each case, the man is named a variation of Richard (Dick and Rick); two common musical motives presented in each act; quotes from the works of William Shakespeare; a use of film genre — first, film noir, second, fantasy, and third, romantic comedy; music which arises comedically out of the situation; and, finally, a whimsical, “over-the-top” focus on some aspect of music. Each work can play separately or as a trilogy with the Epilogue — which takes place in the mind of a composer!