... Once the score (a book containing all the musical notes and words . it, he says in echo LITTLE BAT (Brightening) You're awful pretty tonight, Susannah. The opera opens at a square dance given by her church; a group of wives, jealous of Susannah’s beauty and the attention it brings from their husbands, are gossiping about her. Carlisle Floyd's best known opera, Susannah is a retelling of the Book of Susannah set in rural Tennessee. Mrs. McLean, one of the wives, states that you can’t expect more from someone who was raised by her drunken brother.

Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. There is a time of silence in contrast to her singing in Scene Three and this, coupled with the rather rigid, in-grown stance, suggests something of the change which has …

All them men was shore a-courtin' you; I seed 'em, ev'ry one.

apparent that the bond between the brother and sister is one You was pretty at the square dance tonight.

Written in response to the McCarthyism rampant at the time of its composition, it has become one of the few American operas to gain a foothold in the repretoire of both American and international companies.

Music/History Classes Carlisle Floyd wrote Susannah in the 1950s.

Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending. No harm's gonna come to y' here. (Susannah is discovered standing stiffly against one of the porch posts, staring vacantly ahead of her. Sing a portion of a song from the opera Susannah, other American operas of the contemporary period, or the composer Carlisle Floyd. SUSANNAH No need to be afraid, Little Bat.