MICHAEL GORDON

LIBRETTO BY DEBORAH ARTMAN

CD DVD

01 THE MOOD (5:56)

02 CONCEAL ME (5:20)
03 INTRODUCING ACQUANETTA (4:27)
04 MAD SCIENTIST (5:33)
05 INSIDE THIS COSTUME (5:37)
06 THE EXPERIMENT (6:05)
07 SHADOWS AND LIGHT (6:39)
08 BRAINY WOMAN (5:23)
09 CELLULOID WORLD (10:04)
10 BEAUTIFUL MONSTER (10:39)
Produced and mixed by DAMIAN LEGASSICK
Recording sessions engineered by BRETT MAYER
Recorded at POWER STATION at BerkleeNYC
The world premiere chamber version of ACQUANETTA
was produced by BETH MORRISON PROJECTS in
association with BANG ON A CAN and TRINITY
CHURCH WALL STREET and was commissioned by
BETH MORRISON PROJECTS, with lead commissioning
support by LINDA and STUART NELSON. Additional
support from CHRIS AHEARN and MARLA MAYER,
MILES and JONI BENICKES, STEPHEN BLOCK,
SARAH BROWN and THOMAS P. PERKINS III,
EMILIE COREY, JEANNE FISHER, MARIAN GODFREY,
JOEL GRABER, RAULEE MARCUS, JAMES MARLAS
and MARIE NUGENT-HEAD MARLAS, JILL MATICHAK,
CHARLES and JANE MORRISON, and ANNA
RABINOWITZ.
The chamber version of ACQUANETTA premiered at the
2018 PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL @ Gelsey Kirkland Arts
Center. PROTOTYPE Festival is a collaboration between
BETH MORRISON PROJECTS and HERE.
ACQUANETTA originally premiered in a Grand Opera
format in 2005 in Aachen, Germany, commissioned by
THEATRE AACHEN, supported by NRW KULTUR-
SEKRETARIAT (Wuppertal) and NORTH RHINE-WEST-
PHALIA GOVERNMENT, MINISTRY FOR URBAN
DEVELOPMENT, CULTURE AND SPORT from the
“FONDS NEUES MUSIKTHEATER.”
Michael Gordon’s music is published by RED POPPY, LTD.
and administered worldwide by G. SCHIRMER, INC.
(ASCAP).
Composer MICHAEL GORDON
Librettist DEBORAH ARTMAN
Director DANIEL FISH
Music Director DANIELA CANDILLARI
Acquanetta MIKAELA BENNETT
Brainy Woman AMELIA WATKINS
Ape ELIZA BAGG
Doctor TIMUR
Director MATT BOEHLER
MEMBERS OF
THE CHOIR OF TRINITY WALL STREET
JULIAN WACHNER, Director of Music
KRISTIN GORNSTEIN
MADELINE HEALEY
CATHERINE HEDBERG
CHLOE HOLGATE
HELEN KARLOSKI
MELANIE LONG
ELISA SUTHERLAND
ELENA WILLIAMSON
BANG ON A CAN OPERA ENSEMBLE
COURTNEY ORLANDO - violin
CALEB BURHANS - violin and viola
ASHLEY BATHGATE - cello
TAYLOR LEVINE - electric guitar and bass
GREG CHUDZIK - double and electric bass
RED WIERENGA - keyboard and electronics
Dramaturg MICHAEL R. JACKSON
Scenic Designer AMY RUBIN
Video Designer JOSHUA HIGGASON
Costume Designer TERESE WADDEN
Lighting Designer BARBARA SAMUELS
Sound Designer GARTH MACALEAVEY
Makeup Designer JAS LEE
Hair & Wig Designer ANNE FORD-COATES
Assistant Director MIKHAELA MAHONY
Stage Manager JASON KAISER
Assistant Stage Manager VERONICA LEE
Associate Lighting Designer ALEJANDRO FAJARDO
Video Engineers LIANNE ARNOLD & MATT HOUSTLE
Camera Operator MOE SHAHROOZ
Lighting Assistant ABBY HOKE-BRADY
Platform Technician SERGIO GOMEZ
Wardrobe Supervisor ELEANOR O’CONNELL
Creative Producer BETH MORRISON PROJECTS
BETH MORRISON, president and creative producer
JECCA BARRY, executive director
NOAH STERN WEBER, director of development
BRIAN FREELAND, production manager
MARIEL O’CONNELL, associate producer
CHRISTOPHER MODE, associate producer
ASHLEY PETERS, finance associate
MELANIE MILTON, PROTOTYPE Festival producer
The New York Times obituary in 2004 makes no mention of Mildred Davenport. “Ac-
quanetta, 83, A Star of B Movies,” the headline reads, with a few brief paragraphs
describing the local celebrity, former model and B-movie actress who died in Arizona.
“There’s something intriguing and not quite right about this obit,” Michael Gordon
said to me then, and he asked me to discover more about the woman with the one-
word moniker.
Her past is a mystery. Acquanetta arrived in New York City in the early 1940s, claim-
ing Native American roots. With a come-hither stare and sensuous pout, she quickly
became a pinup model and a darling of the celebrity press. To boost her career,
gossip columnist Walter Winchell and newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst
changed her identity: she was now a Latin bombshell — the Venezuelan Volcano —
whose good fortune continued with a Hollywood movie contract.
In 1943, Acquanetta lit up the screen in the B-movie horror film and now cult classic,
“Captive Wild Woman.” Stunning and exotic, she played the untamable and gorgeous
creation resulting from a mad scientist’s experiment on an ape, a role the young ac-
tress sizzled in and played so well that a sequel was soon in the can. So began a brief
career in bread-and-butter films that ended only a few years later when Acquanetta
inexplicably walked away from the Hollywood studio system.
Michael and I decided to base our opera on the extraordinary three-minute scene
“Captive Wild Woman” where the mad doctor conducts his experiment and unveils
his ravishing creation. Researching the lives of the actors and director of “Captive
Wild Woman” gave me plenty to work with. The mad scientist Doctor, the insistent
Ape, the reluctant Brainy Woman, the visionary Director and the beautiful monster
herself, Acquanetta, gather in this reimagining of that fateful experiment. These vivid
characters reveal their inner longings and emotional shadows in what is ultimately a
meditation on the meaning of identity, transformation, stereotypes and typecasting,
set in the heyday of Hollywood gloss.
Originally scored for full orchestra and chorus, the grand opera version of ACQUA-
NETTA was staged in 2005 by Paul Esterhazy for Oper Aachen in Germany. In 2017,
Beth Morrison asked us to reimagine ACQUANETTA as a chamber opera, and we
created a second version for chamber ensemble, female chorus and the five solo
singers. This new version of ACQUANETTA had its world premiere in New York under
the direction of Daniel Fish as part of the 2018 PROTOTYPE Festival.
— DEBORAH ARTMAN, Librettist

Why did Acquanetta turn her back on her contract with Universal Pictures at the
height of her career? In 2004, when I first researched her past, there was little to be
found. The more I unearthed, the more elusive her origins became. Was she born on
an Indian reservation near Cheyenne, Wyoming? Was she raised in industrial Norris-
town, Pennsylvania?

Special thanks to NORMA ARTMAN, KENNY SAVELSON, DAVID LANG, JULIA WOLFE, MIKE MCCURDY, TIM APPELO, EVANGELINE JOHNS, TAMARA ARTMAN,
ROBBIE MCCAULEY, AMBER SUNSHOWER SMITH, DAVID LEOPOLD, RAY KURDZIEL, HOWARD ZAR, PAUL ESTERHAZY, DANIEL FISH, MICHAEL R. JACKSON,
JASON KAISER, the design team of our New York production — AMY RUBIN & JIM FINDLAY, JOSHUA HIGGASON, TERESE WADDEN, BARBARA SAMUELS, GARTH
MACALEAVEY — as well as MIKHAELA MAHONY, ALEJANDRO FAJARDO, VERONICA LEE, ABBY HOKE-BRADY, KARL WENNINGER, MOE SHAHROOZ, LIANNE
ARNOLD & MATT HOUSTLE, JAS LEE, ANNE FORD-COATES, ELEANOR O’CONNELL, ANGELA IVANA, LIV SWENSON, CHRIS ROBERTS, MILA HENRY, MATTHEW
MCGILL, and the wonderful BETH MORRISON, MARIEL O’CONNELL, JECCA BARRY, JAMES FRY, NOAH STERN WEBER and everyone at BETH MORRISON PROJECTS,
KRISTIN MARTING, KIM WHITENER and everyone at PROTOTYPE, BILL MURPHY, ADAM CUTHBERT and everyone at CANTALOUPE MUSIC and BANG ON A CAN.
 Appropriate me, annihilate me, hide me. ACQUANETTA
Davenport me — lose me, sever me, omit me. Ahhh…
Dissolve me, conceive me, extinguish me, assimilate me.
DIRECTOR
Do you remember anything
libretto by DEBORAH ARTMAN from your past life?
SCENE 3: INTRODUCING ACQUANETTA
music by MICHAEL GORDON CHORUS, DIRECTOR, ACQUANETTA
CHORUS
2005/2018
CHORUS (playful) (Gasp!) Introducing Acquanetta.
(stylized scream) Ahhh… (Gasp!)
(spooky) Oooh…
Ahhh… (Gasp! Gasp!) Ahhh… SCENE 4: MAD SCIENTIST
SCENE 1: THE MOOD Introducing Acquanetta. DOCTOR: ARIA
CHORUS, ACQUANETTA, APE, BRAINY WOMAN Ahhh… (Gasp!) Oooh…
DOCTOR (urgent + possessed)
(stylized scream) Ahhh… Ahhh… (Gasp!)
Who am I today?
(spooky) Oooh… Burning fire in deep water.
The mad scientist.
Ohhh… Ahhh… (Gasp!) Oooh…
I live in the inner sanctum.
Ahhh… (Gasp!)
The fantastic world of my dreams.
Introducing (Gasp!) Acquanetta.
Who do I play today?
SCENE 2: CONCEAL ME DIRECTOR (curious) I transmutate an ape into a woman.
ACQUANETTA: ARIA Do you remember — ? I glandulate an ape into a captive wild woman.
I’ll transmutate an ape into a woman.
ACQUANETTA (mysterious, ethereal + revelatory)
CHORUS
Conceal me, disguise me, obscure me, exchange me.
Burning fire (Gasp!)
Obliterate me, reword me, imagine me.
in deep water SCENE 5: INSIDE THIS COSTUME
Shield me, mask me, shroud me, blind me, screen me,
APE: ARIA (+ CHORUS)
veil me. DIRECTOR
Bury me, transform me, convince me, remake me. Do you remember any — ? APE (plaintive, with growing confidence)
Conceal me, disguise me, turn me, translate me. Because I’m inside this costume —
Blur me, invert me, camouflage me, transmute me. CHORUS
Sway me, convert me, transfigure me. Introducing CHORUS
Metamorphose me, cancel me, abandon me. Ahhh… Oooh… Ohhh…
Revise me, elide me, alter me — Mildred me. ACQUANETTA
Alias me, modify me, cover me up. Ahhh… APE
Repudiate me, covert me — Norristown me. You can’t tell if I’m good or bad.
CHORUS You can’t tell if I’m black or white.
Shadow me, model me, vanish, disclaim, pass me.
Acquanetta You can’t tell if I’m thin or round.
Conceal me, disguise me, erase me, escort me.
Would it surprise you if I were a woman? APE DIRECTOR
Because I’m inside this costume — It was so hot I almost fainted. (with authority, directing the film) And cut!

CHORUS DOCTOR
Ahhh… Oooh… Ohhh… Trephinate — SCENE 7: SHADOWS AND LIGHT
DIRECTOR: ARIA (+ CHORUS)
APE APE
(confident + poetic)
You don’t know if I’m decisive or persuasive. The Demon Without a Face —
You don’t know if I’m commanding or alluring. the mask alone took six hours. DIRECTOR
You don’t know if I’m enlightened or disheartened. Well done. Let’s take five. That was swell.
Would it surprise you if I were a woman? DOCTOR Acquanetta, don’t say a word. It’s all in your eyes.
Evolution, fluctuation — And Doctor, be more intense.
APE Ape, from inside the cage to outside the cage,
SCENE 6: THE EXPERIMENT step into that light, then step into that shadow.
A hairy tarantula, the Fog Creature.
DOCTOR/APE DUET (+ DIRECTOR) (to Brainy Woman) And sweetheart: Think, what is real?
(in separate worlds, obsessively) DOCTOR
Plasmatic transfusion. CHORUS
DOCTOR Ahhh…
Gown, gloves, mask, APE
magnifying glass. The Doppelganger, Ooze, a killer bee. DIRECTOR
Razor, drape, (dreamily, to audience) The medium is black and white.
forceps, scalpel, hand drill. DOCTOR Movies are made with shadows and light.
Bulb syringe, Gown, gloves, mask, I use chiaroscuro, deep shadows that are practically
Kellies, tweezer, morphine. magnifying glass. black.
Blood, more blood, more morphine. Razor, drape, We call them bread-and-butter pictures.
Electric coagulator. forceps, scalpel, hand drill. That’s where the big money is — the B’s.
We’ve got to make this movie in ten days.
APE APE It might gross over a million the first week.
Last week I played the Bones from Beyond. Would it surprise you if I were a woman?
CHORUS
DOCTOR DOCTOR She had a certain something.
Transmutate — I’ll transmutate an ape into a woman.
CHORUS + DIRECTOR
APE APE She had a certain something.
Before that the Black Widow. Would it surprise you if I were a woman?
DIRECTOR
DOCTOR DOCTOR All right. Quiet, please.
Glandulate — I’ll transmutate an ape into a woman. Lights! Wind! Fog!
Roll camera. BRAINY WOMAN + APE I am your beautiful monster.
I want to play a real woman. Lovely and shy,
CHORUS I can stop a lion in its tracks.
Rolling. CHORUS
I want to play a real woman. I am your beautiful monster.
DIRECTOR My shadow cast upon the wall
Sound. BRAINY WOMAN + APE causes fear in people’s hearts.
I want to play a real — The secret you want to ignore
CHORUS
is inside this costume.
Sound rolling. BRAINY WOMAN
(yodels) Ahhh…
I could be the ingénue.
DIRECTOR I could be the femme fatale. ACQUANETTA + APE + BRAINY WOMAN + CHORUS
Action! Please don’t take my brain. (yodels) Ahhh…

DIRECTOR (+ DOCTOR + CHORUS)

SCENE 8: BRAINY WOMAN SCENE 9: CELLULOID WORLD I know you want everything
BRAINY WOMAN (+ APE + CHORUS) QUINTET to be clear and simple as black and white.
BRAINY WOMAN (frightened) (reflective + lyrical)
ACQUANETTA + APE + BRAINY WOMAN + CHORUS
Please don’t take my brain. ACQUANETTA, APE, BRAINY WOMAN, DIRECTOR, DOCTOR I am your beautiful monster.
(hopeful) I could be the Queen of Scream. In the celluloid world, Lovely and shy,
I could be the ingénue. once you are cast, or miscast, I can stop a lion in its tracks.
I could be the femme fatale. you are that forever.
I could play a real woman. DOCTOR + CHORUS
The one with an invented past
CHORUS Burning fire in deep water
SCENE 10: BEAUTIFUL MONSTER
(yodels) Ahhh.. Once you are cast or miscast
ACQUANETTA (+ CAST + CHORUS)
BRAINY WOMAN ACQUANETTA (cheeky + proud) ACQUANETTA + APE + BRAINY WOMAN
Please don’t take my brain. I am your beautiful monster. Ahhh…
I could be a bathing beauty. Lovely and shy,
I could be desirable. I can stop a lion in its tracks. DIRECTOR + APE + BRAINY WOMAN + DOCTOR +
CHORUS
BRAINY WOMAN + APE I am your beautiful monster. I know you want everything
Ahhh… The one with an invented past. to be clear and simple —
CHORUS Who will I play today?
(Gasp!)
The Venezuelan Volcano.
(demanding + emphatic) I want to play a real woman.
It all happened so fast.
For more about everything you hear on this recording, visit cantaloupemusic.com,
michaelgordonmusic.com or deborahartman.com. To get specially priced advance copies
of all our new releases, as well as catalog discounts and other perks, sign up for the
Cantaloupe Club or our digital subscription service at cantaloupemusic.com/fans.
As always, we thank you for your invaluable support.

Cantaloupe Music is from the creators of Bang on a Can.

℗ & © 2019 Cantaloupe Music, LLC.
All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws
Cantaloupe Music, 80 Hanson Place, Suite 301, Brooklyn, NY 11217
www.cantaloupemusic.com | CA21150

UPC/EAN: 713746315023