Tale for a Deaf Ear

The opera opens on a snowy winter afternoon in the suburban home of Tracy and Laura Gates, who begin arguing about Tracy's drinking. As they are about to fall to blows, he dies of a heart attack, and she prays for his revival. A Greek chorus appears and explains that, centuries ago, the ancient mariner Hypraemius was so kind to repentant souls, that not only did he ascend into heaven, but was granted four miracles (one for each season), and if a true penitent prayed at 3:59 in the afternoon for the return of their dead, their request would be granted. What follows are reenactments of Hypraemius' first three miracles.

The first of these occurs in the spring, in 16th-century Tuscany, where a Florentine noblewoman prays for the return of her infant son. The scene shifts to Scotland, in the summertime, where a farm girl pleas for the return of the family cow. The scene shifts again to autumn in Central Europe, during the Thirty Years' War. Here, a German soldier prays for the return of his brother, who lies dead in his arms. Finally, the scene returns to the Gates' home, where Tracy revives with no awareness of what has happened. Despite Laura's efforts to abandon her former ways, the two resume their squabble, and Tracy has a second heart attack, this time dying permanently. A doctor enters to administer an injection to Laura as the chorus intones the moral, "The only death in life is the death of love."[1]

The opera has been performed very infrequently since its premiere; in 1997, a production was mounted in New York with the Center for Contemporary Opera.[4] In February 2018, the opera was performed for the first time in the Midwest at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where it was featured in a triple bill of one-act operas alongside Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Gian Carlo Menotti's The Telephone.[5]