Floyd, Carlisle

Bilby's Doll (1975)

Duration: 135 minutes
Opera in three acts, eight scenes

Libretto by the composer, based on the novel `A Mirror of Witches' by Esther Forbes (E)

Scoring
Major roles: 2S,M,C,2T,Bar,BBar,B; minor roles: S,T,2Bar, 3 speakers; chorus 2(II=picc).2(II=corA).2(II=bcl).2-4.2.2.1-timp.perc(4)xyl/vib/SD/TD/BD/tamb/susp.cym/crash cym/ant.cym/ant.chimes/stone wind chimes/chimes/tpl.cl/wdbl/chinese tpl.bl/gong/bells/bell tree/whip/vibraslap-harp-cel- pft-strings.
Abbreviations (PDF).

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

World Premiere
2/27/1976
Houston, Texas
David Pountney, director
Conductor: Christopher Keene
Company: Houston Grand Opera

Roles

Silas, the tavern keeper	baritone
Deacon Thumb, a prosperous farmer	tenor
Titus Thumb, his son	baritone
Jared Bilby, a former sea captain	bass
Mr. Zelley, a clergyman	bass-baritone
Goody Goochy, the village midwife-undertaker	contralto
Town Crier	tenor
Hannah Bilby, Jared Bilby's wife	mezzo-soprano
Doll Bilby, the Bilby's foster daughter	soprano
Mrs. Thumb, wife of Deacon Thumb	soprano
Sorrow, twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs. Thumb	soprano
Labour, twin daughter of Deacon and Mrs. Thumb	soprano
First Suitor, suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby	tenor
Second Suitor, suitor of the widowed Hannah Bilby	baritone
Shad	tenor
Mr. Kleaver, the village doctor	baritone
Captain Buzzey, the local constable	baritone
Mr. Increase Mather	bass
A Young Boy	non-singing
Goody Greene	non-singing
A Servant Boy	non-singing
Judge Bride	non-singing
Judge Lollimour	non-singing
People of Cowan Corners and Salem, Deputies, Judges' retinue	non-singing

Time and Place
1671-73, Cowan Corners, Massachusetts

Synopsis
Bilby's Doll, based on the novel "A Mirror for Witches" by Esther Forbes, is the story of Doll Bilby, a French orphan girl whose spirituality and imagination collide with the hostility and practical ideals of the Puritan colony where she is raised by foster parents.

Doll was brought to Massachusetts from France by Jared Bilby, her foster father.  She declines a marriage proposal from Titus Thumb, a young ministerial student, saying that her natural parents were burned as witches in France and she worries that she might also become a witch.  Instead, she meets and marries a man who pretends he is an authentic demon, but who is later revealed to be the estranged and opportunistic son of the minister Zelley, Doll's friend and supporter.

Although she is at first devastated by the revelation of her lover as a mortal, Doll's belief that her husband is a demon is restored as she dies giving birth in a jail cell.

 

Moods
Dramatic, Tragic

Subjects
Magic/Mystery, Relationships, Religion, Society, Literary