FOR A LOOK OR A TOUCH (CHORAL/STAGE) (2013)

Libretto by Gene Scheer. For baritone, men’s chorus, actor, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion. Originally commissioned by Music of Remembrance, this second incarnation was commissioned by the Seattle Men’s Chorus and The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

First performance: April 2, 2011 at McCaw Hall, Seattle, with baritone Morgan Smith, actor David Pichette, Seattle Men’s Chorus and instrumentalists from the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Dennis Coleman, directed by Andrew Russell.

For A Look Or A Touch is a story about the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. Librettist Gene Scheer based his text on true stories told in the documentary film Paragraph 175 and the journal of Manfred Lewin, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.

(NOTE: this work also exists in two other versions, a stage version without men’s choir, and as a song cycle for baritone solo.)

 

1. The Voice
2. Golden Years
3. A Hundred Thousand Stars
4. The Story of Joe
5. Silence