Steal Me . . . but don't take me to far!

My voice teacher assigned a new song for me from an opera called 'The Old Maid and the Thief'. Its about a transient man who is looking for food and money. And he is HOT! So the maid and the mistress decided to take him in and help him out. The mistress begins to steal money to help him, from the church and from friends, to entice him to stay. He does, but the maid is very jealous and tells him that people are beginning to suspect him of being the thief. The end of the opera ends with the man leaving with the maid, leaving the mistress alone.

At first I wasn't sure I would like the song. My voice teacher, Barry Bounouse, played it for me in our lesson and I was kind of hesitant to it. But I've been working on it and fallen completely in love. The music is very contemporary, so there are a lot of dissonant cords and strange resolutions. The video below is a pretty good redition of the piece.

The song is from the maid's view and she's singing about how the man won't make any moves to her. She goes through what the mistress has been doing to keep him there and he still makes no advances. It continues with her wishing he would steal her heart, her lips, her life and take it before death steals her life. Very nice.