Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Written in 1927-8, it contains about twenty saints, and is in at least four acts. It was ground breaking for form, content, and its all-black cast, with singers directed by black choral director Eva Jessye and supported by her choir.
Thomson suggested the topic, and the libretto as delivered can be read in Stein's collected works. The oper...
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Four Saints in Three Acts
Opera
Librettist
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 (Gertrude...
Language:
Date Written:
- 1928
Date of First Performance:
- May 20, 1933
Genre:
Composition
Composer
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic from Kansas City, Missouri. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist , a neoclassicist , a composer of "an Olympian blend of...