Helena and the Moonstone - Scott Wheeler

Composer: Scott Wheeler Instrumentation: Soprano and piano Duration: Approx. 16 minutes Date Written: 1999 Synopsis The huntress Helena serves the moon goddess Diana, but secretly she has married the hunter Actaeon. Her greatest desire is to bear his child, though it will mean her banishment. Actaeon agrees to seek help from Hecate, goddess of the night, who tells him to steal and then return the moonstone from the necklace of Diana. He succeeds in getting the stone to Helena, but in returning it is caught by Diana, who transforms him into a stag. When his own hounds chase him, Helena herself kills the stag. She bears Actaeon’s child, to whom she sings a lullaby, “We will wait for your father.” Helena and the Moonstone begins as a sung story, but as the soprano takes on the roles of Helena, Actaeon, Hecate, and Diana, each with brief arioso sections, it expands into a dramatic cantata, or perhaps a solo opera. Notes:  Notes Like many operatic heroines, Helena is strong, sensual, and be