The Paper Lined Shack

About twenty years ago, my wife Joan and I were unpacking boxes in our new home in southern California. We stumbled across a written diary of my great grandmother Della and we were both struck by her writing. I knew well the outline of her story from my grandfather Harold (her son) - primarily that she was widowed suddenly at a young age with six children. Della persevered, and managed to raise her family on a ten acre farm out West in Idaho, where she had recently moved with her young husband Franklin.

My mother Rosemary had given us Della's collection of pages, composed for her children near the end of her life. There was a compelling vision of strength, love, humor, and humility in her story which I had long wanted to set, or do something with; but soon enough other deadlines, life, and raising our own family intervened and I forgot about them.

In receiving this commission for Leonard, I decided on a narrative song cycle for soprano Hila Plitmann (a soloist with whom he has collaborated frequently, and I also admire greatly). In the midst of my search for a strong female-driven text for Hila, I recalled Della's writings. Re-reading these pages some twenty years later, I

noticed even more nuance and meaning in her words. Della seemed as compelling and relevant as some of the more contemporary subjects I was exploring, and of course personal. 

I'm very grateful to Joan Beal for spending the time to help select these lines from her memoir into this libretto. A relationship between an orchestra and its conductor spanning fifty years could be thought of as a remarkable marriage; an artistic garden with deep roots for both the garden and its gardener, with a rich history of its own. I'd like to think Della would be pleased to have her story brought to life by one of our very

finest American orchestras, and their dedicated and visionary conductor, Leonard Slatkin.

– Jeff Beal