Bilby’s Doll
(1975) 135’
Opera in three acts, eight scenes
Text Libretto by the composer, based on the novella A Mirror of Witches by Esther Forbes
Scoring Major roles: 2S, M, CA, 2T, Bar, BBar, B; Minor roles: S, T, 2Bar; 3 speakers; chorus
2.2.2.2-4.2.2.1-timp.perc-cel-pft-strings
Catherine Malfitano as Doll Bilby in Bilby’s Doll
Houston Grand Opera, 1976
PHOTO: JIM CALDWELL
Bilby’s Doll is Floyd’s psychological thriller, based on the novella A Mirror of Witches by Esther Forbes. Set in a Puritan colony in Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, the opera is about a French orphan girl, Doll Bilby, who is raised in a Puritan home and fears, because her birth parents were suspected witches, that she may be one as well. The opera takes an ominous turn when Doll begins to believe she is a witch, and is seduced and abandoned by a “demon”— later revealed to be a clergyman’s son— and then convicted of witchcraft when those around her fall mysteriously ill.
Notable Moment: “I picked these wildflowers on the way”
Titus (baritone), Act I, Scene 2
Titus Thumb, a young seminarian, has come to the home of Jared Bilby to ask his foster daughter, Doll, to marry him. This moving aria is possibly the most lyrical moment in the work, and Carlisle Floyd’s favorite among his operas.