Woman in an Ermine Collar
Year
2022
Length
8'00"
Category
Voice
Chamber
Orchestration
Mezzo-Soprano, Cello, Piano
Commission
Leslie Jacobson Kaye
Premiere
November 9, 2022
Leslie Jacobson Kaye
Eli Kayner, Timothy Steele
Program Note
The year is 1909. American artist Kathleen McEnery Cunningham, age 22, lives in Paris. Excited by the women’s rights movement, Cunningham paints the portrait Woman in an Ermine Collar, challenging gender roles of the time with her vision of the modern women: strong, confident, active.
Later, in the early 2000’s, Israeli-American poet Ruth Kessler views Cunningham’s painting at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, where the artist moved after her European travels. Ruth, also a Rochester resident, is riveted by the woman’s commanding, yet elusive presence. And so, Ruth writes a poem, “Woman in an Ermine Collar,” which becomes part of her 2013 collection Fire Ashes Wings, reimagining legendary women from art, literature and mythology.
Move forward a little more to 2021, when my dear friend Leslie Jacobson Kaye approached me to commission a new work for her spring 2022 recital. Leslie was building her program around the theme of women’s voices, which led us to Ruth, who I had collaborated with previously. Ruth’s poem stirred something deep in our hearts, and we knew it was “the one.”
The result is this piece: a song inspired by a poem, inspired by a painting, inspired by a woman in Paris, so mesmerizing that the depiction of her gaze still captivates over a century later.
Text by Ruth Kessler
Perhaps doubt has painted the darkness around you.
That ermine and lace still
corseting you in your age but
the looming lamp of your face,
in your eyes a wistful resolve,
and ahead – a door,
a desire, a distance
to enter.
In your bag you have already packed
contradictions, questions,
impatience; one hand on the hip in defiance, your
gaze sailing toward a different horizon –
along its seam vernal voyages bloom.
in a moment
you will leave hesitations behind,
board some train for The New,
pounce on life
as you must, (we are here on the platform –
the extras –
watching)… Already you’re
Leaving, breaking
away to follow
no road signs
to the uncharted chances
churning around you.
Towering traveler –
What road will you take?
Will you ever look back?
Who are you?
Performance History
- November 9, 2022: Leslie Jacobson Kaye, Weston AIC, Weston, MA
