“a just soliloquy”

Samuel K. Sweet, composer
Langston Hughes & Samuel K. Sweet, librettists

Martin Luther Clark, tenor
Chris Reynolds, piano

Kansas-born Samuel K. Sweet (b. 1995) graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in vocal music education. He performs in many professional Dallas-based choruses, including the Dallas Bach Society and the Dallas Choral Festival. Sweet has also held many church-music positions while in Texas. His compositions have been published by such reputable houses as Classical Vocal Reprints and E. C. Schirmer. Concentrating mainly on vocal music, Sweet has had works commissioned and premiered across the country, including but not limited to the Eastman School of Music, the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati, Intercollegiate National Men's Chorus Seminar in Washington D.C., and by many artists and faculty members at the University of North Texas.

"a just soliloquy" was written by Sweet for his colleague Martin Luther Clark when the two were studying at the University of North Texas. The piece combines two texts. Employing a notably wide-ranging vocal line taking the singer up to high C-flat, Sweet sets the captivating poem "Dream Variations" by one of America's most renowned writers, Langston Hughes (1902-1967). It's briefly interrupted by an original poem by Sweet himself, which is spoken. The poem is a prayer hoping for an end to hate and the triumph of a love that knows no boundaries.

Text

To fling
My arms wide in someplace of the sun,
To whirl and to dance, dance, dance, dance, dance,
To whirl and to dance till the white day is done, done.

Then rest at cool evn'ing
Beneath a tall tree -
While night comes on gently
Dark like me,
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.

I have hope that one day
We can end this hate
And all its seeds will
Vanish into the void.
A hope where the human that stands before you
Is the truth.

A hope for a time, a place, a genius attitude
that has the sole purpose to find the good in life.
A hope that plants love, a love that has no definitions,
no boundaries, no right or wrong.
Because love is the closest thing to perfection
a human being can find.

Rest at pale evn'ing...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly,
Black like me
Black like me, me.

Tenor

Martin Luther Clark

The tenor and first-year Ryan Opera Center member graduated last spring from the Curtis Institute of Music with a master’s degree in opera. While on the East Coast, he performed with the Russian Opera Workshop in concert, portraying both Vaudemont/Iolanta and King Charles/The Maid of Orleans during the 2019 summer season. With Curtis Opera Theatre, Clark sang the roles of Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni, Tobias Ragg/Sweeney Todd, and First Sailor/Dido and Aeneas. In the summer of 2018, he was heard as an Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera (Colorado) and as the tenor soloist at the Library of Congress, where he sang published and unpublished works by Leonard Bernstein for the 100^thanniversary of the composer’s birth. Clark has also been heard with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a Resident Artist, has performed numerous roles and made gala appearances with the University of North Texas Opera, The Dallas Opera (cover), The Dallas Opera Outreach, Charlottesville Opera, Opera in Concert, Opera North, and Wolf Trap Opera. Clark will make his Lyric debut as Police Buddy 2 in Blue by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson, and will also appear as First Philistine in Samson and Delilah.

Martin Luther Clark is sponsored by the Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc., Sally and Michael Feder, and Richard O. Ryan.

Pianist

Chris Reynolds

The first-year Ryan Opera Center pianist is currently a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School. He recently concluded his run as performance pianist for Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s chamber opera Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater. Other recent performance venues include Bayreuth, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, WQXR, the Kyoto Summer Music Festival, and the National Sawdust. A two-time winner of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital Auditions, he has been a fellow at SongFest and Aspen Music Festival and School, as well as a Schwab Rising Star at the Caramoor Center for the Arts as part of the New York Festival of Song Emerging Artist Series. Reynolds has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater as an opera coach/répétiteur. He has given a series of lecture-performances at Columbia University and Union College in Schenectady, and has been on the faculties of the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, William Paterson University, and the Mostly Modern Festival. Reynolds holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. In Lyric’s 2021 Season, he will serve on the music staff for The Marriage of Figaro.

Chris Reynolds is sponsored by Nancy Dehmlow, Loretta N. Julian, and Philip G. Lumpkin.

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