The Crane Wife

“A concentrated opera”

- Robert Beaser

The Crane Wife is a three movement narrative song, on a prose text adapted from CJ Hauser’s autobiographical piece of the same name, first appearing in the Paris Review in 2019.

The story takes place half in upstate New York, during the dissolution of her marriage, and half at a wildlife reserve on the gulf coast where she goes to study whooping cranes for her next book. The story is told in a disparate confluence of gospel, rock n roll, piano ballad, and more traditional art song styles.

Performed May 8th, 2022
Lincoln Center, NYC
Sop: Erin O'Rourke
Piano: Diane Park