Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$7USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Physical CD.
Printed art by Bebel Franco.
Collectors' items: Plastic objects imitating colors of flowers.
Even if you prefer to download audio:
A set of these will make classy cup rests.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
edition of 100
15 remaining
$9USDor more
Sheet Music + Digital Album
Vocal Score Book: 140 pages, complete music plus libretto, introduction by composer and physical CD. Numbered bound copy of limited first edition. Goes with dedication to your name signed by the composer.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 100
12 remaining
$44USDor more
Sheet Music + Digital Album
You will get a download link for the full 140 pages vocal score book in pdf format.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 1 day
$9USD
Sheet Music + Digital Album
A piece of the history behind the composition, as a collector's item: You get one of the draft prints of the libretto and score. These are full of annotations in pencil by the composer, they are the actual working copies that testify the progress of the composition, with coffee stains and all. I make a lot of notes with color pencils, for easier reference. The result can be quite interesting visually.
Bound in red yarn and wrapped in plastic. Each original is unique and you'll be able to compare your exclusive draft to the final version on the book. Super cool. There are only 8 of these, they have been numbered chronologically. First come first serve.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 8
4 remaining
$120USDor more
Instrumental background with flute playing the vocal part. Ideal if you are a mezzo soprano who is working to learn this music. It is also great to sing along, while you clean the house or entertain your friends.
You get a download code for a folder containing all the instrumentals.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 1 day
$7USDor more
DVD + Digital Album
Watch it like you were there. Be a part of the creation of a new opera company.
Includes unlimited streaming of Plastic Flowers - Concert Premiere
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
I cried until I could no longer
See my eyes in the mirror.
I tore in small pieces the letters
That once I kept with my secrets.
I cried because I tore apart
The flowers I had by the window.
There's red all over my face.
There's red all over my body.
There's red when I close up my eyes.
It's painting my body like roses.
In flashes of light I am fading
In glimpses of darkness I’m falling.
The pain will soon cure all the sorrows
My dream starts tasting like tears
My body is covered with flowers
The colors are bright in the corners.
You gave me plastic flowers
You said that plastic flowers last forever
But I won’t be your plastic flower anymore.
You took me to the tower.
Even my glass desires seem to break down.
Lonely hours, broken hearted,
Wasting time takes forever.
You bought me plastic flowers
You said that plastic flowers last forever
But I won’t be your plastic flower anymore.
Dad used to make up songs for me:
Da da dum di dum
Da da dum di dum
Da da dum di dum
Da.
Pequeñita,
¿Dónde estamos?
¿Dónde vamos?
Pequeñita?
¿Dónde hemos de pensar que la vida nos sería
siempre hermosa, siempre rica,
siempre maravillosa?
Pequetita?
¿A dónde vamos sin tristezas, sin maldad, con ternura, con coraje?
A dónde vamos, Pequeñita?
Pequeñita ..
And then daddy left me,
The phone was ringing in the night.
Papito died in a car crash.
He was just a face in a box.
Mother was crying in a corner.
My first love was a boy
And he came to me with flowers
He held on to my hand
All the way up to my door.
He took me to the fair
And we rode the roller coaster
And he gave me a teddy bear.
“...baby let me be, your loving teddy bear,
put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere…”
He talked about himself
And he called me his princess.
He told me of his life and how good a man he was.
I felt so special, beautiful, so fancy,
So special.
I had this dream of love
I felt your body
So hot
I needed finding
What's love?
Yet it never felt so lonely
As when you got yourself going
Like I was not there
Like you did not care
And I cried into the pillows
For the moment was so fast.
And he was gone.
The second one I met when I was old enough to drink
He took me to a bar, where he showed off all he could.
We danced into the night
Choosing songs from the old jukebox.
Yes, he had the smell of liquor
Yes, his hands were large and strong.
Yet he asked me of my past
And he looked into my secrets…
He would take his time
Trying out the food that we ate
Trying out the food that I made.
Yet I keep thinking about things that I don't remember
Thinking about moments that I lost…
He would ride me like a horse,
And I almost saw the stars.
Yet I wanted him to stay,
But it did not take too long,
One day I woke up
And he was gone.
My third love was a woman
And we met outside the church
We would talk for days on end
And she told me of her feelings
We kissed inside her room
We could spend the day in bed
We would hide under the sheets
And forget the world outside
I felt…
I felt how my body could expand…
You taught me the Song of Songs
You were my priestess
You were my love.
You were my only one.
You were my lust.
“I rose open for my lover,
in my hands flowing myrrh,
my fingers smelling sweet myrrh,
on the handles of the lock.”
Your hands all over me,
My fingers dripped with myrrh…
“Your kiss so sweet
Your sweat so sour
Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you
But I know it's only lust”
Yet she held to me just like fire,
And I almost could not breathe
It was good but it was too much.
It was gold, but was it my gold?
It was life, but was it my life?
I was afraid.
I had to go.
Then I met you in the Summer
Like someone who comes from nothing
You never gave me fancy gifts
Nor did you ask many questions
You just took me by the hand
And led me to the bed
You just seemed so undeniable
That I thought it was love at last...
So I thought it was love at last...
And I put on a wedding dress
Oh, my pretty wedding dress…
And in the church I did say yes.
I keep thinking about the moment when I first saw you
You were so handsome
You were so tall
You were like a tower
And I was so small
I keep thinking about the past,
Thinking about the future.
Thinking about my mother.
Thinking about my father.
Thinking about you,
Holding my hand at the movies
Touching my thighs in the dark room,
Thinking about the taste of your kiss...
Oh, how I felt I looked so pretty
In my white dress…
Oh, my pretty wedding dress…
Oh, my silly wedding dress…
And I spilled wine on my dress
But you did not seem to mind that.
Yet you left me all alone
In a house away from everyone
Just the highway and the halls
I could go out shopping
I could see the newest mall
But I never had a child,
And you only come home to sleep,
If at all.
You leave me waiting.
And I keep waiting
And waiting
Always when you're not here,
I am waiting,
Even when you are here,
You are never really here at all.
I see signs of time in the mirror,
I see signs of love that have gone
And I never get and answer
Why does the clock tick so loud?
So...
I went to the mall to get more.
I bought all the gifts from the store
I got all the goods from the ad
I was left just waiting for more.
Cause I have plastic cards,
I have credit.
And I can bring more
Plastic to the house
I filled my plastic home with plastic people
Plastic toys for the children that I don’t have
Plastic toys from the sex shop
Plastic chairs where I can kiss my ass.
And eat the plastic food that's frozen,
What should I taste today?
I have plastic bottles full of soda
I have plastic dreams that bring me nothing
I am just a party doll that's wearing make up
Showing my plastic face to your plastic friends
Serving you pleasure, like a blow-up doll.
Let’s party!
Throwing the plastic plates on the floor
Eating the plastic food from the drawers
Scratching the plastic nails that I put on
There's a plastic sign at the door
But I don't want to live here anymore.
Oh...
I went to the mall to get more.
I bought all the gifts from the store
I got all the goods from the ad
I was left just waiting for more.
I am lost to the world.
No one cares if I live or die.
Daddy,
They'll be sending me to you in a box.
I could cut my arm and wrist.
Cause I don't know
If there's blood there
Or if it’s just pain
Or if it’s just air
If there was ever anything there at all
Keeping me up
Maybe it was just air that was holding me tight
Maybe it was just air all that I had on my insides.
And I almost thought that I would explode!
Like a plastic balloon
That flies so wild
And hits with a sound at the wall
Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuuuuuu...
Like a plastic balloon that's
No longer
Any good
For anyone
Good for no one.
No one
No one looks at me
No one sees me
I’ll just fade away
Into the background.
Daddy,
They'll be sending me to you in a box.
Maybe I’m just not there
But I could run away
To a new life.
Dum di dum di da
Dum di dum di da
And then…
I cried until I could no longer
See my eyes in the mirror.
I tore in small pieces the letters
That once I kept with my secrets.
I cried because I tore apart
The flowers I had by the window.
There's red all over my face.
There's red all over my body.
There's red when I close up my eyes.
It's painting my body like roses.
My body is covered with flowers
The colors are bright in the corners.
You gave me plastic flowers
You said that plastic flowers last forever
but I am not your plastic flower anymore.
You took me to the tower.
Even my glass desires seem to break down.
Lonely hours, broken hearted,
Wasting time takes forever.
You bought me plastic flowers
You said that plastic flowers last forever
But I won’t be your plastic flower anymore.
The thorns are deep in my skin.
But
I can still fit on my red dress.
I can still get on my high heels
I can put on my red lipstick.
I guess I can still make a mess.
I see flowers.
Flowers.
But
Plastic Flowers never die.
about
Plastic Flowers is opera meeting pop art.
A psychological drama about a woman lost in Suburbia,having a nervous break down and going over her life.
credits
released January 6, 2013
Abby Powell: Penelope
Han Cen: Piano
Luigi Porto: Live Electronics
João MacDowell: "a new thinker in the genre", has a career that spans from punk to opera. Currently serves as resident composer and artistic director of the International Brazilian Opera Company - IBOC in NYC.
Tymoczko manages to fuse sophisticated contemporary harmony with an idiom that is exiting, engaging and fun. The more I her it the more I like it. joao macdowell
Two mind-expanding epics that clock in at 17 minutes apiece and blend drone, ambient, shoegaze, and traditional Indian music. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 12, 2023
