from Act I, Scene 1 of the English opera The Consul by Gian-Carlo Menotti

Libretto: Gian-Carlo Menotti

Role: The Mother, mother of John Sorel

Voice Part: contralto       Fach: contralto

Setting: Home of John Sorel, a totalitarian European country after World War II

Synopsis: John Sorel has been shot after attending a secret revolutionary meeting. He comes back to his house and meets his wife Magda and his mother who is tending her grandchild. The secret police are after him and he leaves the house to go into hiding. The Mother sings a lament as she rocks the child, asking if they will ever see the end of the oppression and tyranny evident in the world.