A Water Bird Talk opera in one act Music by Dominick Argento Libretto by the composer, freely adapted from On the Harmfulness of Tobacco by Anton Chekov and The Birds of America by J. J. Audobon

(U.S. Opera Home Page)

The setting is the rostrum of a provincial club on the East Coast of the United States, sometime in the second half of the 19th century. The Lecturer, a somewhat absent-minded man in his fifties, begins a lecture on water birds. At the beginning of the lecture his wife prompts him from offstage with coughing and throat-clearing. She soon leaves in disgust, and the Lecturer's talk digresses even further into his home life: his wife is a dominating, ill-tempered woman; he regrets the unfulfilled promises of his youth; and even his daughters make fun of him. At last, the explosion of his slide projector and the return of his wife ends his lecture, and he leaves the stage.

A Water Bird Talk and Miss Havisham's Wedding Night. Shirley-Quick, Mabbs, Sinfonia of St. Cecilia/Watkins, 1997. Compact Disc. Koch 3-7388-2 H1.

A Water Bird Talk. Sutton, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra/Clark, 1996. Compact disc: Newport Classics NCD 85602.