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Your search criteria were: Database searched-aria Opera-The Ballad of Baby Doe Range Function-not used Voice Part-All Language-All Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing Did certain persons die before they sing. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge View All Quotes

Willow Song (Willow where we met together)
      from Act I, Scene 2 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Elizabeth Doe (Baby Doe), the wife of a miner
• Voice Part : soprano   Fach : lyric coloratura
• Setting : outside of the Clarendon Hotel, Leadville, Colorado, 1880
• Range : F4 to D6. Tessitura : F4 to G5
• Synopsis : Baby Doe sits at a piano, playing and singing for herself. The song she sings sounds like an ordinary song about lost love. However, she is actually singing about her broken marriage with Harvey Doe and how it fell apart.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Warm as the autumn light
      from Act I, Scene 2 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Horace Tabor, mayor of Leadville and owner of the Matchless Mine
• Voice Part : baritone   Fach : lyric baritone
• Setting : outside of the Clarendon Hotel, Leadville, Colorado, 1880
• Range : B3 to E4. Tessitura : D#/Eb3 to C#/Db4
• Synopsis : Tabor has just overheard Baby Doe singing. He then goes to meet her and tells her how her beautiful singing made him think of his own youth and what he left behind when he came out to Colorado from New Hampshire. He implies tenderly that he could find some of these lost things again in her.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Letter Song (Dearest Mama)
      from Act I, Scene 4 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Elizabeth Doe (Baby Doe), the wife of a miner
• Voice Part : soprano   Fach : lyric coloratura
• Setting : lobby of the Clarendon Hotel, Leadville, Colorado, 1880
• Range : E4 to C#/Db6. Tessitura : F#/Gb4 to F#/Gb5
• Synopsis : Baby Doe writes a letter to her mother, telling her that her marriage to Harvey Doe, the miner, is over. She goes on to tell her then that she has found her soulmate in Horace Tabor and they both love each other equally. However, Tabor is married and, torn between her love and what is right, she feels that she must leave.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Gold Aria (Gold is a fine thing)
      from Act I, Scene 6 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Elizabeth Doe (Baby Doe), the wife of a miner
• Voice Part : soprano   Fach : lyric coloratura
• Setting : Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1880
• Range : E4 to C#/Db6. Tessitura : F#/Gb4 to F#/Gb5
• Synopsis : After there is much distress and arguing about whether the silver standard should be repealed or not, Baby Doe tells her view on the subject, saying that gold is only flashy. However, silver is the core of the dreams and hopes that hold the country together.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

The fine ladies walk with their heads
      from Act II, Scene 1 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Elizabeth Doe (Baby Doe), the wife of a miner
• Voice Part : soprano   Fach : lyric coloratura
• Setting : balcony outside the Governor's Ball at the Windsor Hotel, Denver, Colorado, 1893
• Range : D#/Eb4 to A6. Tessitura : F#/Gb4 to F#/Gb5
• Synopsis : At the ball, Baby Doe and her mother are treated as second-class citizens by the other women at the ball. They go out on to the balcony to get away from the snobbery and Baby Doe declares that the reason that other women look down upon her is because they wish they had what she had. What she has is the true love of Horace Tabor, which she goes on to say is the most valuable thing that she could own.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Turn tail and run then
      from Act II, Scene 2 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Horace Tabor, mayor of Leadville and owner of the Matchless Mine
• Voice Part : baritone   Fach : lyric baritone
• Setting : club room in Denver, Colorado, 1895
• Range : A3 to F#/Gb4. Tessitura : D3 to D4
• Synopsis : Tabor's cronies have decided to support William McKinley for president instead of the party's choice of William Jennings Bryan. Tabor tries to convince them to stay loyal, believing that Bryan will bring back the silver standard that made Tabor and his cronies rich. When they refuse to go along with him, Tabor angrily accuses them of being turncoats and declares that the smart and free men in the country will make up for them.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Augusta! How can you turn away?
      from Act II, Scene 4 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Augusta Tabor, wife of Horace Tabor
• Voice Part : mezzo-soprano   Fach : dramatic mezzo
• Setting : Augusta's study, 1896
• Range : B4 to G#/Ab5. Tessitura : F4 to F5
• Synopsis : Baby Doe's mother has come to Augusta, asking her to help her ex-husband Horace Tabor, who left her for Baby Doe. Tabor has lost all of his money and can hardly support himself. Augusta sends her away, declining to help the couple. However, after she leaves, Augusta wonders why she doesn't run to help the man that she once loved.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.

Always through the changing of sun and shadow
      from Act II, Scene 5 of the English opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
      Libretto : John Latouche

• Role : Elizabeth Doe (Baby Doe), the wife of a miner
• Voice Part : soprano   Fach : lyric coloratura
• Setting : stage of the Tabor Grand Theater, Leadville, Colorado, 1899
• Range : D#/Eb4 to B6. Tessitura : F#/Gb4 to G#/Ab5
• Synopsis : As her beloved husband Tabor lies dying, Baby Doe tells him that she will always remain faithful to him, even letting a part of her go with him as his dies.
• Sound file : none
• Translation and/or Aria Text : none
• Recordings : Complete Opera  Excerpts from Opera
• Where to Find It : Score of opera - Classical Vocal Reprints, 1-800-298-7474. Catalog #31201.