Deborah Mason

category: Music, Visual,

Contact & Info


Artist Statement

Deborah Mason is a Composer and an Artist, and she is currently organizing a campaign to fund the World Premiere of her Opera-ballet, The Rape of the Lock (1714). It is a setting of an exquisite work of poetry by Augustan British Poet Laureate, Alexander Pope. A young lord snipped a lock of hair without permission from a young lady. To laugh the estranged families together Pope, at the height of his early rise to fame, immortalized the proto-feud in language unsurpassed even by Shakespeare. The rage of Belinda at the theft of her lock, which represents the free will and dignity of women, is compared to the mighty rage of Achilles. Refusing to play the victim (being intelligent and humorous) she takes revenge with a tiny object as David did to Goliath. An appealing opera on this poem is needed today as a model of beautiful language and a fable for young people not to tolerate any force in the treatment of women during courtship, or at any other time. The strong message is extremely pertinent in today's world. The story, however, is light-handed and beautifully presented. This lively music is meant to be appealing to the young and the old, Choral and Opera patrons, New Music, Early Music and Ballet lovers, and there are scenes even for G&S fans. Please see the website for updates. She also does large, abstract acrylic landscapes in an on-going series, Fafner's Glen. These are glittering, seductively luminous acrylics that arouse visual lust in the viewer, and which are ruminations on the frailties of the human condition. debmasonstudio.com


Educational Background

Education
Mount Holyoke College, New York University, Crane School of Music.