a pocket opera on the playlet by Thornton Wilder (used by permission)
for 2 sopranos, 1 mezzo soprano, cello and percussion
circa 12 minutes
Synopsis: Somewhere out at sea, there is a great shipwreck over night. The Prince wakes to find himself alone on an island with The Mermaid. While The Prince is bewildered and calls out to his lost shipmates in disbelief, The Mermaid bargains with The Prince to attempt to take his soul, for Mermaids have no soul. But The Prince explains that the soul cannot be given away, or seen, or tasted. In frustration she calls out in her magical mermaid tongue to make the waters rise and drown the Prince; The Mermaid notices that there is something lost, about the eyes, when a man ceases to live. She calls upon The Leviathan, who is a subservient creature to The Mermaid; upon the monsters arrival, she complains about the wreckage harming her young, but the Mermaid has no patience for Leviathan, and orders her to take The Prince down to feed her children. Now that the Mermaid is alone again, she hums her mermaid song, combing her hair, only to stop and ponder about men: "Perhaps it is better, although your body has passed to Leviathan, still to have another part of you somewhere about the world."