Ron Paquette Music

Midnight Execution (excerpt)

30,000 torch-bearing citizens amass to witness the "Grand Opera" execution of two "criminals," one being Arabella’s fiancé, James Casey, whom she is marrying as a condition for him to receive Last Rights, while in an adjacent hall new converts to the Committee take the "Oath of Allegiance" as outside, the gallows and choir are being prepared.

The Perils of the Press (excerpt)

Having just been appointed Secretary of the Vigilance Committee and now editor of the Daily Bulletin, Hubert Nobcraft (think "high concept" character somewhere between Cyril Ritchard’s Captain Hook and Alan Rickman’s Snape) suddenly finds himself with unimaginable power. In this song, he searches his conscience, religion and historical precedent to justify using any ploy necessary, including deception, to accomplish what he feels is best for society—and on a more personal note, to destroy his poetic nemesis, the "drunken Catholic," Ned McGowan. One of the more complex sequences in the story, his transformation in this piece from benign volunteer to convicted fascist, begins in St. Mary’s Church and follows him through the bustling downtown and wharf to his arrival at the Daily Bulletin where he is to begin his first day as editor in chief. In the final section here, he imagines himself passing a church cemetery with Ned’s future gravestone marking "Death by Consumption," then rounding the corner to his office, he envisions couples with children along the street awed by his celebrity. (Note: Throughout the score, trills are used to underscore the symbolism of birds in the story. In this piece, however, they are intended as a grotesque mockery.) Performed by Tim Fullerton.

All For Naught (duet)

Late into the night, the two leading support characters, Yankee and Arabella, both fugitives from the Vigilance Committee, are recounting their unfortunate childhoods when they are suddenly interrupted by a spectacular meteor shower. The lofty yearnings of the lyrics belie the subtext of the scene, however, which is a magical dance of courtship as they chase each other through the grounds pretending to only be interested in the celestial show. Sung by Nacre and Matt Zarley.

See Me Now (Part II, Scene 1, complete song sequence.)

Arriving late into the windy night at the Mission Dolores after her newlywed husband has just been executed by the Vigilance Committee, Arabella seeks refuge in Sister Dominica’s chambers. When the nun opens her wardrobe to retreive a nightgown, Arabella is stunned to see her torn and disheveled appearance in the mirror and thus begins this autobiographical song of woe. Not long after this first part, however, while changing into her nightgown, the wind outside increases markedly, blowing open the window and sending a mysterious scroll from atop the wardrobe onto the floor unfurled before them–a harbinger of things to come. Sung by Nacre.

Follow this song in the script.

The Still Small Voice (duet – excerpt)

Arabella arrives at Ned's home, frantic for him to do something to stop the Committee's arrest of her fiancé who she is to marry in a week. But being three times more poet than judge at this point, himself facing indictment, the only comfort Ned can proffer is a poem he has just penned about the importance of remaining hopeful in insufferable times—ideals Arabella insists are far easier to admire than live. In the excerpt here, which enters as the music approaches the last verse, Ned is finally able to break through her melancholy by placing flowers from the vase on the grand piano in her arms as a bouquet and the doily under it over her head like a veil, and spinning her around where, at the climax of the music, she finally sees herself in the mirror—a bride! It is her first smile in days. (Script pp. 56-58) By the end of the piece, renewed hope has set in and Ned breaks into a sprite, Irish dance in which Arabella willingly joins him. Sung by Matt Zarley and Nacre.

Song of the Scroll (excerpt – draft orchestration, no vocals)

Arabella’s singing of the Canticle of the Sun by Francis of Assisi. It is during this sequence, which takes place in the mission quadrangle and is predicated on the pedantic Nobcraft’s mocking the story of the Saint’s sermon to the birds, that Nobcraft experiences an epiphany about his own character—which changes everything. Beginning as a solo and evolving into a duet, then trio and quartet, the excerpt here picks up with the song’s central section, where it has evolved into a quintet (script p.166 “Once again Arabella bids the group to follow her back through the Quadrangle…” and concludes just after it has become a chorus at the climax, and Nobcraft cannot help but shed a tear, “the first since mother’s death,” he laments. (Script p. 168)

Seeing The Elephant, The Adventures of a Naïve 49’er, or Theme and Variations on Yankee Doodle (excerpts – piano only)

Based on the popular minstrel play of the time, this incarnation, a play-within-the-play, takes place in the crowded Metropolitan Saloon in Santa Barbara as part of a pep rally by the Vigilance Committee to stir up support to capture the elusive Ned, who is believed secreted there. The play is structured as a series of humorous vignettes (the variations), each a send-up of some aspect of the gold rush, and is intended to be intercut with the frenzied hunt for Ned that erupts mid-performance and spills out into the streets of the city. Ned is only able to escape with the help of a notorious, flamboyant bandito who disguises Ned as a Franciscan friar and escorts him straight through the frenzied mobs rushing to and fro in hot pursuit.