Högberg, Fredrik
The Woman of Cain - Study Score
11465In stock
Opera for soloists, choir and orchestra.
Performed in English - translated from Swedish by Lysanne Sizoo.
Separate librettos with text in English and Swedish.
The opera Cain's Woman is based on what is not said in the Bible. As we all know, Genesis tells the story of the first humans on earth, Eve, Adam and their sons Cain and Abel. Suddenly, another person enters the picture, apparently out of nowhere: the woman from Cain. Apart from the fact that she saw her husband, pregnant, giving birth to a son, her origin and identity have not yet been told. Until now.
The Woman of Cain is a story about the people who thought they were the first and only; a drama about truth and lies, denied and forbidden love, the eternal dream of a paradise and human struggle to control life itself.
The opera opens with the aged Enoch, son of Cain, who must finally face the inevitable - to write down the true story of his own origin, how it all began.
Enoch's story forms the frame story, supplemented by flashbacks to life in paradise before his birth, and in his youth when the very first city has just been built.
Ensemble
Adam - the first man on earth. . . Bass
Eve - the first woman. . . . . . . . . . Sopranos
Cain * - their first born. . . . . . . . . . Baritone
Abel - the younger son. . . . . . . . . Tenor
Enoch * - son of Cain and the first writer of history. . Baritone
Aya * - Enoch's woman, a prostitute. . . Mezzo-soprano
The four versed-in-scriptures (the scribes):
Scribe 1 . . . Counter Tenor (or Mezzo-soprano)
Scribe 2 . . . Tenor
Scribe 3 . . . Tenor
Scribe 4 . . . Bass
Mehujael - Enoch's grand child, a young boy. . . The ghost
The other people . . . Choir SATB and Dancers
Citizens, merchants, beggars, construction workers and others.
* Cain, Enoch and Aya appear both as young and old.
See more details in the synopsis describing scene by scene.
