O Mistress Mine
Come away, come away, death
These songs from my opera on Shakespeare’s comedy are settings of two of Shakespeare’s most beautiful lyrics, both sung by the wise fool, Feste. In spite of the idyllic nature of the words, in the context of the play both songs are shocking: ‘O Mistress Mine’ is sung for two old drunkards, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek; and ‘Come Away, Come Away, Death’ is sung during the sad and tangled scene in which the Duke Orsino asks Viola, disguised as the pageboy Cesario, to woo the Countess Olivia on his behalf. The Duke does not know that his page is actually a woman who dearly loves him, nor that the countess is in love with the ‘page’, nor that he himself is in love with the same ‘page’.
2-2-2-2; 2-0-0-0; harp; perc; strings