A Dill Pickle: a one-act chamber opera
by Matt Malsky
after a short story by Katherine Mansfield
Vera - Caitlin Felsman, mezzo-soprano

The Man - Cailin Marcel Manson, baritone

String trio of Worcester Chamber Music Society:
Peter Sulski, violin

Mark Berger, viola

Ariana Falk, cello
Soundtrack available from NeumaRecords.org and all digital services.
In a chance encounter in an Edwardian café, Vera meets her former lover…
Matt Malsky has crafted an intimate and character-driven one-act opera exploring alienation and power relationships from a short story by Modernist Katherine Mansfield. It is 1914. Vera and the unnamed male protagonist meet again in a café after a six-year absence. The couple’s ensuing conversation ranges from their shared memories to their separate experiences after they parted. They chat about their time at Kew Gardens, a lost piano, a Christmas tree, a yard dog, travel to Russia - and improbably, a dill pickle! Quick and seamless shifts move us from their public dialogue to Vera’s private internal world; her lively memories and interior musings allow access to her complex inner life and psychological depth. The conversation reaches its zenith as they simultaneously arrive at the same conclusion: that they had been alone together.
The music of the opera was inspired by “Love’s Entreaty,” a Victorian-era piece of sheet music by Mansfield and her sister. Though the song is not literally heard, its sense and sensibility inform the music of the café and its world. Malsky’s score is carefully attentive to social conventions (such as tonality) but just a bit off-kilter. The music that supports Vera’s memory, thought, and feeling draws more on the contemporaneous Expressionist and Surrealist movements to express her wider range of emotion.
An outstanding ensemble brings this stage work to life. Caitlin Felsman, mezzo-soprano, has been praised for her “velvety low register” and “bright, ringing top” [Boston Music Intelligencer]. Baritone Cailin Marcel Manson has been acclaimed for his “commanding tone and ringing projection” [MassLive]. The string trio members are drawn from the Worcester Chamber Music Society, whose performances have been described as “so effortless, so technically virtuosic and so musically expressive, they have become one of the most loved and admired treasures in our musical community” [Worcester Telegram and Gazette].
Matt Malsky’s compositional style is known for its rhythmic vitality and dramatically crafted gestures. His music has been described as “eloquent, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally compelling.” He is currently Professor and Tina Sweeney, M.A. ’49, Endowed Chair in Music at Clark University.