Adapted from a collection of poems by Robert Browning

Composed by Robert Balaguer

Co-Librettist and Dramaturg, Emmett Murphy

Vocal Coach, Lucy Tucker Yates

Robert Balaguer’s new contemporary chamber opera, The Faultless Painter, brings to life three artists depicted by Robert Browning in a collection of dramatic monologues entitled “Men and Women,” first published in 1855. Balaguer was drawn to the characters, as captured by Browning, who struggle with the same questions and challenges Balaguer has encountered in his own life as a composer.

The Faultless Painter focuses on the faith, passion, and experiences of Andrea Del Sarto, Fra Lippo Lippi, and the “unknown painter,” or Pictor Ignotus. While Browning sought to ruminate on famed artists of the Renaissance to examine his own concerns as a poet, the three stories have been woven together within Balaguer’s score to form a new story that still resonates today. 

Scored for three vocalists, piano