Opera (large chamber): The Night Falls - Full Score (PDF edition)

Ensemble: eight voices (SSSSATBB), flute (dbl. piccolo), clarinet in Bb, horn in F, 2 percussion, harp, piano/keyboard, violin, viola, cello, electronic playback

Duration: 75 minutes

Commissioned by: BalletCollective. Developed and co-produced by BalletCollective, Inc. and PEAK Performances at Montclair State University. The Night Falls was developed during a Project Spring board: Developing Dance Musicals 2018 residency, and further support was provided during a virtual creative residency in 2021.

Premiere: Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey

Published by: Yes Daedalus Music

Note:

A new myth for our fractured era, with book and lyrics by Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, choreographed and directed by Troy Schumacher (NYC Ballet and BalletCollective).

All across America, people on the brink of despair begin to have the same nightmare; a song will not leave their heads. This dangerously beautiful music lures a group of strangers to "The Night Falls": an abandoned roadside attraction built around a mysterious grotto, the concert hall of “Florida's own Sirens.” One of these lost souls is Felisberto Robles, a Queens, NY teenager who has recently suffered a terrible loss. Night after night, he dreams of three women transformed into monstrous birds. They sing to him in his sleep, beckoning him to join them. Desperate to learn why this song is haunting him–and desperate to hear it again–Felis travels to the grotto from his dreams. When he arrives, he discovers he is not alone; many others have been lured to the water's edge. Within a group of suffering people from all walks of American life–among them an athlete whose spirit was shattered by a very public breakdown, a mother who lost her daughter to addiction, and a misanthropic python hunter–The Night Falls depicts the metamorphosis of wary individuals into a true community.

With choreography that dramatizes the leap of empathy between bodies, and music that channels the polarities of surrender and resistance, The Night Falls shows the visceral power of art to brace us against the seduction of despair.