Ghostly sentiments (2025)
i. prologue: in fear - the things we saw (and still see)
ii. in anticipation
iii. in reminiscence
iv. in uncertainty
v. in prayer (stilled in life's dream)
vi. in resentment
This haunting six-movement song cycle weaves together poetry by Jean Blewett, Charles Baudelaire, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Sara Teasdale, Walter de la Mare, and Elizabeth Jennings. These words become the main emotional thread – in fear, anticipation, reminiscence, uncertainty, and even in prayer.
The main story arc that kept coming back throughout this cycle's creation was the reality vs. fiction ever so present in the popular TV show Are You Afraid of the Dark? when I was growing up. The work takes that as the basis, and throws in the overdramaticism of the many emotions within the operatic realm, caused by the central love interest in most cases. After a quasi-five stages of grief, the narrator looks back in the final movement as if to say - "What just happened?"
Premiered in Sep. 2025 at Northern Liberties Community Center by
Sara Tillett - soprano
Michael N. McAndrew - piano
With generous support from Liberty City Arts and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Performance of Revised Score -
Nov. 2025, Dishman Art Museum, Lamar University
Madeleine LaFollette - soprano
Michael N. McAndrew - piano
