Chhlong Tonle (complete)

An opera-monodrama in three stories:
1. stained
2. strange music 15:25
3. crossing the river 35:01
FINALE 47:58
Jin-Xiang Yu, soprano; Liliya Ugay, piano
Composer - Liliya Ugay, Librettist - Sokunthary Svay
Dramaturg - Antigoni Gaitana, Stage director - Emerson Haven,
Lighting designer - Bella Schwerin, Recording engineer - Justin Ball
Recorded at Dohnányi Recital Hall, Florida State University on March 27, 2022
Chhlong Tonle was created with the support of IDEA grant from Opera America, 2021
Chhlong Tonle* explores the roles women are called to serve through the prism of different cultures and traditions in a theme of fluidity and crossing. “Stained”, the first story, opens us up with Leyli, whose arranged marriage results in a wedding night that does not dawn as expected. Inspired by a phrase from the poet, Kimiko Hahn, “That Strange Music”, the second story, chronicles the relationship of two concert pianists whose virtuosic and musical beginnings descend into a postpartum, distorted landscape. “Chhlong Tonle”, our final story, takes us literally and figuratively across the Mekong River in Cambodia with the pregnant Sreymum. The opera culminates in a unified call of all the women voiced through a single female vessel.
*In Khmer, the language of Cambodia, the term “chhlong tonle” means to literally “cross the river” but is also a figure of speech to mean “giving birth.” In traditional Cambodian birthing rites, only women who have given birth, who have already “crossed the river,” are allowed to be with the expecting mother and midwife.