Tooth and Nail (2004)

Theater music: songs and underscoring.
for three voices, guitar, and harpsichord
20 min.

I composed the music (three jazz songs, one tango, and seven operatic recitatives) and provided guitar and keyboard accompaniment for the U.S. premiere of Tooth and Nail, which opened in UC Berkeley's Durham Studio Theater in November 2004, directed by Laura Levin.

Letitia's Torch Songs

Song of Hopeless and Dangerous Dreams

Song of Antagonism and Love

Letitia's Song of Two Boys and Pleasure

Madelaine and Angelo

Angelo Entertains Madelaine

Madelaine and Angelo Flee

Throwing Away the Things

Sifiso Recruits Angelo

Catching a Fish

Who Ate Mimi?

Knives and Yellow Flesh

Forever Madelaine and Angelo

BONUS: "Forever Gollum and Louis"

Ensemble

Song of Antagonism and Love, Pt. 2

ANGELO: Anand Sarwate
MADELAINE: Aaron Brownstein
LETITIA: Caroline Barad
SIFISO: Holly Chou

Michael T. Roberts, guitar and keyboard, vocals (Song of Antagonism and Love, Pt. 2)

Guess what? You can buy this music!

Notes

Tooth and Nail was originally written and produced in 1988 by the Junction Avenue Theatre Company in South Africa. Written during the troubled period which saw a violent end to apartheid, Tooth and Nail addresses the many social, racial, and political upheavals of the time.

The script calls for many of the play's lines to be sung. Two characters, Madelaine (a rich white woman) and Angelo (her black servant), sing to each other entirely in opera; another character, Letitia, is a nightclub singer who performs several of her songs during the play. I spent the better part of the fall of 2004 setting these scenes to music, composing on the keyboard (with a harpsichord patch) for the first time to serve Madelaine and Angelo's scenes, and sticking to the more familiar guitar for Letitia's torch songs.

Five of the play's six performances were sold out, and all received a glowing reception from local critics and audiences alike. The music also earned warm praise from Malcolm Murkey, the central author of the play and founder of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company, when he traveled to Berkeley for a residency in the Cal theater department.