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Bill (2025)   

for soprano and piano 10'

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Bill is a gender-inclusive, queer opera written for soprano Émilie Versailles.

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PROGRAM NOTE

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Bill was written for the 2025 Opera from Scratch workshop in Halifax Nova Scotia. It was premiered by soprano Émilie Versailles and pianist Indra Egan. I gave the following introduction at its premiere.

'Bill was a victim of the sinking of the S.S. Atlantic in 1873. This was a cruise liner which capsized near Lower Prospect while it was enroute to Halifax. What interested me about Bill was this was a person who seemed to be very different in death than they were in life. After this tragedy they were discovered to be a woman but in life they were a very convincing man. They were a sailor aboard the S.S. Atlantic. And there’s not really enough information about Bill to say whether or not they were trans. But certainly, they were not a cisgender man, which is how they were known on the ship. The scene I’m depicting is actually the last moments of Bill’s life as the ship is sinking'. 

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INSPIRATION

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There have been many romantic incidents attending this calamity which have come to light during the search for the bodies. One, was the discovery of a girl in sailor’s garb, whose life was sacrificed in efforts to save others. She was about twenty or twenty-five years old, had served as a common sailor for three voyages, and her sex was never known until the body was washed ashore and prepared for burial. She is described as having been a great favorite with all her shipmates, and one of the crew, speaking of her, remarked: ‘I didn't know Bill was a woman. He used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman.”’ It is said that the poor thing was an American, and, among the crew, perhaps the only one of that nationality. Who she was and whence she came nobody knew.

-Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper Vol.36 Iss.917

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LIBRETTO 

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If only I could get this door ajar – of course I would find myself locked in! – what type of door is this? - Tonight we were supposed to be in Halifax! – if only this door...

 

Is it locked? Is it jammed? Or is there simply no room? Is there nothing but more poor souls on the other side?

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I would rather be crushed in the hallway.

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These quarters I know them so well, but everything is off!

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Am I still dreaming? Do I really know where I am?

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Is this really how I die? Just a sailor on the White Star Line?

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There is my body and the sea and only time between us. I’m trapped in time!

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How strange to find in the darkness hiding a seashell. Did a child bring you on this voyage? Or are you merely a stowaway? To imagine, to dream, that such a small thing could trap a mermaid on land.

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I wish that I could see it in the light. It still feels pretty as far as I can touch.

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Who is your merrow-maiden shell? What is her song?

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[Bill sings to themself]

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If sirens sink ships who’s to say there isn’t one here? We could be a toxic couple, starting storms and sinking ships. Two divas singing in the deep, black water – our voices prying in the darkness – her seafoam hair and moonlit eyes.

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And sweetly I can hear her calling me “Black is the color of my true love’s hair. Her lips are something rosy fair. She’s the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands. I love the ground whereon she stands. I love my love and well she knows. I love the ground whereon she goes. If she no more on the earth would be ‘twil surely be the end of me.”

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PERFORMANCES

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08.17.25 . 3pm ADT . Opera From Scratch Workshop: Gala Performance . St. Andrew's Church, 6036 Coburg Road, Halifax NS . CA

★Bill - Émilie Versailles, Voice, Indra Egan, Piano★

With funding from the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council

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