For a While – Levi's aria from Uncovered — Scene 5: Motherhood

2020 | tenor/piano or tenor/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Levi tells of joining the men praying in synagogue early mornings as his holy refuge from the stress of raising a large family, and reveals a very different sense of God than Leah, as if he has separated onto his own path and left her behind. 

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

I Didn't Dare — Young Leah's aria from Uncovered — Scene 1: The Wedding

2020 | soprano/piano or soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax On the evening of her Hasidic wedding, Young Leah has a dream vision of her true love, a woman named Ana.

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

I'm Learning to Pray — Young Leah's aria from Uncovered — Scene 1: The Wedding

2020 | soprano/piano or soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Leah withdraws into her prayerbook amid the bustle of preparations for her wedding, soon to begin. As guests buzz about a changing world and women burning bras on television, Leah tries to explain to her mother why she is enamored with hasidic life religious ways. 

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage)

Our Every Move — Young and Older Leah's duet from Uncovered — Scene 9: Uncovered

2020 | Soprano and soprano or mezzo-soprano/piano or soprano and soprano or mezzo-soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Leah reminisces with her younger self, blesses the children, who are now grown, and faces stepping out into the world alone. 

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

Paradise — Older Leah's aria from Uncovered — Scene 5: Motherhood

2020 | soprano or mezzo-soprano/piano or soprano or mezzo-soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Leah reminisces about a more innocent time before she had her seven children. The sense of Godliness she finds now is in wordless wonder moments with a child.

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

The Mikvah Aria — Young Leah's aria from Uncovered, Scene 2 — The Mikvah

2020 |soprano/piano or soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Leah immerses in a mikvah ritual bath as her entry into hasidic married life. She marvels at how exposed she feels there before God after a lifetime of keeping her homosexuality secret.

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

2020 |soprano/piano or soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/pianoLibretto by Leah LaxSheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

To a Lost Child — Levi's aria from Uncovered — Scene 7: Secrets

2020 | tenor/piano or tenor/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

After Leah aborts their child, Levi imagines it was a boy. He imagines taking him to synagogue and teaching his son his first prayers, and grieves. 

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).

Uncovered

UNCOVERED

a new one-act chamber opera

Music by LORI LAITMAN
Libretto by LEAH LAX
Director: BETH GREENBERG

Uncovered examines one woman’s secret life in a restrictive society and the consequences of living a lie. Against her family's wishes, Leah, a young lesbian, joins the Hasidim, an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect. In her desire for inclusion and serenity, she hides her true self, enters an arranged marriage and bears seven children. Then she faces a crisis that changes everything. The opera is based on Leah Lax’s memoir Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home.

INSTRUMENTATION:

clarinet, violin, cello and piano

The opera was a finalist for the 2018 Dominic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize. To view the first scene (unrevised) as performed by the students and faculty of SUNY Purchase, please click here. Leah and I speak a bit about the opera starting at 48:52 and the music starts at 57:12.

The expected length is about 70 minutes. I have put together a consortium of universities and small opera companies and expect to finish the work for a spring 2021 premiere. If you are interested in co-commissioning, please email me at lori@artsongs.com for more information.

White Walls — Older Leah's aria from Uncovered — Scene 9: Uncovered

2020 | soprano or mezzo-soprano/piano or soprano or mezzo-soprano/clarinet/violin/cello/piano

Libretto by Leah Lax

Before she leaves, Leah walks through the house she spent years making into a home for her children, who are now nearly grown, and remembers their games. She remembers her younger self dreaming of paradise and promises herself that she will never again try to cover up her truth.

Sheet music for sale through MusicaNeo (available through my homepage).