The two scenes to be presented, from my opera, This Lingering Life, have been adapted from the Noh play Aya no Tsuzumi. The teenage Princess appears in her home, located in Palm Springs, Florida. She has heard that the Old Gardener is in love with her. She thinks this is hilarious, and she makes fun of him until suddenly realizing that people would laugh at her if they found out. She resolves to put him in his place. Her trickery will lead to tragedy. The Princess sends a note to the Old Gardener through the Young Gardener. The note says,

“Tonight…

Bang the drum hanging from the tree.

I’ll come to the window

I’ll signal you to my room.”

The Old Gardener expresses:

“My heart was dead to the world.

Then I saw the princess at the window,

Her pure beauty transformed me.”

Discovering a few hours later that he had been tricked, the Old Gardener kills himself, and returns to become one with the Young Gardener and to haunt the Princess as a demon.