Dust Bowl

Feb. 23 - Feb. 25

Anthony J. Maglione’s acclaimed music, which played to sold-out audiences during its world premiere in 2020, triumphantly returns to Dallas. The originally-crafted work, which was hailed by Dallas critics as “breathtaking” and “unlike anything else in our city,” features first-hand accounts of survivors of the Dust Bowl with additional newspaper articles and diary entries. In collaboration with bluegrass band, video projection, and choreographed movement, Verdigris Ensemble brings Dust Bowl back to Dallas and asks the question: how did this happen and have we learned from our mistakes?

Sung in: English
Subtitles in: English
Runtime: 55 minutes
No Intermission

Concerts are immediately followed by a reception.
A portion of every ticket will be donated to the Texas Trees Foundation

A man-made environmental disaster, the Dust Bowl began in 1931 and lasted for almost a decade, displacing entire populations in the southern plains region of the United States. Constant droughts, bug infestations, and increasingly dangerous living conditions left farmers with one guarantee: dust. "Dust to eat and dust to breathe and dust to drink. Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair and eyes and ears and teeth and throats.”

Setting texts exclusively from newspaper articles, diaries, and first-hand oral accounts of survivors, the Dust Bowl pieces together nearly a decade of human struggle, hopefulness, and perseverance in the face of constant catastrophe. From fatal dust pneumonia to plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers, the performances of the Dust Bowl are honest and raw

Setting texts exclusively from newspaper articles, diaries, and first-hand oral accounts of survivors, the Dust Bowl pieces together nearly a decade of human struggle, hopefulness, and perseverance in the face of constant catastrophe. From fatal dust pneumonia to plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers, the performances of the Dust Bowl are honest and raw

Synopsis

Program

Run Time: 55 minutes

Part 1: Promise

Chorus: Dust To Eat

Accompagnato: The Seeds of Destruction

Aria and Chorus: No Man’s Land

Recitative: If The Farmers

Chorus: Trouble Ahead

Accompagnato: As the Drought

Chorus: A Tribute To Dust Storms

Aria: Dust Deniers

Aria and Chorus: The Ballad of Tex Thornton

Part 2: Peril

Chorale: Dust to Breathe

Chorus: Rabbit Roundup 

Recitative: No amount of Optimism

Chorus: Black Sunday

Aria and Chorus: Nothing’s Right With The World

Chorale: Dust To Drink

Part 3: Prophecy

Accompagnato: A Terrible Failure

Aria: If it Rains

Chorus: Eternal Dust

Recitative: Have We Learned?

Chorus: Reaping the Dream

Chorus: Dust to Eat (reprise)

Creative Team

Anthony J Maglione, Composer

Ron Witzke, Librettist

Claire Choquette, Director

Micaela Bottari,
Set Design

Courtney Ware, Projection Artist

Soprano

Rachel Jones

Briana Salas

Jacki Miller

Julie Bowdren

Ensemble

Alto

Kassdiy Montan

Katrina Burggraf

Meredith Hinshaw

Kate Bishop

Tenor

Samuel K. Sweet

Eric Lewis

Spencer Simpson

Barrett Radziun

Bass

Dean Willis

Connor Lidell

Conner Allison

Tres Hunter