Héloise: A new chamber opera Music by William Beauvais, libretto by Judith Sandiford and Ronald Weihs December 6 & 7, 1997

Artword Theatre and Winter Longing Music present Héloise, a new chamber opera, Act One in concert of a work in progress,.
performed by:
Héloise -- Linda Eyman, soprano
Abelard -- Alan Gasser, tenor
Fulbert -- Paul Oros, baritone
pianist -- MarieLine Ross

Héloise, a new chamber opera, is based on a 12th C text, The Letters of Abelard and Héloise. Peter Abelard was a renowned philosopher and scholar. His passionate and illicit love affair with his teenaged student ended violently with his castration by her guardian Fulbert in 1119. They went their separate ways, she to a nunnery and he to a monastery. Their remarkable correspondence ten years later forms the basis for the opera.

William Beauvais, composer, has been commissioned to write for the Evergreen Club Gamelan, Sylvie Proulx, Philip Candelaria and the Echo Women's Choir. His Requiem An Ambiguous Innocence was written for CKLN radio. His music has been recorded on two compact discs: Traces (for Queen's University Music, 1996) and Bridges (for Winter Longing Records, 1994). He is a well known exponent of Canadian Music as a guitarist, and his Centredics debut will be released in the winter of 1998. His music has been published by Frederick Harris, the North York Board of Education, and by Elliot Chapin.