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Joyce and Quenten Doolittle

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Joyce and Quenten Doolittle met at Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York in the late 1940s where their first collaboration was as stage director and violinist for a student production of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat. They moved to Calgary in 1960 and have been active in the city's music and theatre community for almost half a century. They retired as professors emeriti from the University of Calgary in 1988. Quenten was music advisor and for many stage productions which Joyce directed. Joyce directed Quenten's first opera, Charlie the Chicken, in Toronto and Calgary.

In the late 1970s, the Doolittles set up a cooperative group of artists, Alice Productions, and produced the highly successful Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass at the Pumphouse Theatres. For New Works Calgary, the Doolittles have worked together on A Christmas Carroll and Alice, Helen in Egypt and Ruby’s Heart Throbs. Bible Babes is the first time they have collaborated as writer and composer.

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Bible Babes

To request a copy of any of this opera please contact The Canadian Music Centre directly via e-mail.

To inquire about performance rights for this play please contact the writers directly via e-mail.

Bible Babes

Music by Quenten Doolittle 

Words by Joyce Doolittle

Style: Mini opera for mezzo soprano, piano and flute

Length: 60 mins

Number of Acts: One

Total Actors Required: 1 Mezzo-soprano plus accompaniment

Men: 0

Women: 1

Synopsis:

Bible Babes is a music theatre piece about three of the most maligned women named in the Old Testament. Eve is blamed for the fall of humankind and their banishment from the Garden of Eden; Delilah for destroying the strength of the hero of the Israelites, Samson, and Jezebel for worshiping the pagan gods in defiance of the prophet Elijah. To the men who wrote the Bible these women were dangerous temptresses. Bible Babes offers their stories from another, more female, point of view.

Musically, Bible Babes is a cycle of songs within a unified theatrical context. The three sections begin with an overture (Welcome to Paradise) and conclude with a quodlibet.  The term “quodlibet” refers to an ancient musical device, which combines several themes in a loose contrapuntal confederation. You will hear snatches of a melody by Borodin as remembered in the musical Kismet (Take My Hand, I’m a Stranger in Paradise) combined with brief references to each of the babes

Production History:

First performed in January 2005 at Lethbridge University for the noon hour music series and at The University of Calgary by New Works Calgary for Happening, the New Music Festival.

Original performers were Das Chicas featuring Patrice Jegou (Mezzo soprano), Deanna Oye (Piano) and Chenoa Anderson (Flute).

Additional Notes:

The score for Bible Babes is available on loan from The Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region, 911 McKimmie Library Tower, 2500 University Drive N.W.  Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4  

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