Completed in June, 2017

Commissioned by the Staunton Music Festival

program note

The stock characters of Commedia dell’Arte were sources of both entertainment and social commentary in Italian theater. In “The Doctor,” I hope to bring these two functions into a contemporary American context. The famous clown and trickster Harlequin rushes into the office of his greedy-but-well-educated Doctor. Suffering from a lack of confidence in the bedroom, Harlequin is prescribed a treatment whose side-effects, both financial and physical, prove difficult to swallow.