Dazzlingly abstruse and brimming over with surreal touches, “The Mother of Us All,” an opera with music by Virgil Thomson and a libretto by Gertrude Stein, is an idiosyncratic choice for an experiment in community building in Hudson, New York. The work tells the story of Susan B. Anthony, or something like it. At one point Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson themselves show up within the opera to narrate a scene between Susan B. Anthony and her companion Anne; the libretto is full of Stein’s iconic twistings and turnings of phrase. “I do and I do not declare that roses and wreathes, wreathes and roses around and around” is a typical line. Often, longer exchanges move more by pun relationships and rhymes than conversational or narrative logic: a non sequitur about a character’s wife (Chris: “Well have you got one?” Jo: “No, not one.”) transitions to a discussion of hiding valuables by way of the words “poor,” “money,” “funny,” and “floor.”
Unlimited access to our
