A half-fairy, half-human creature popular in the Middle Ages, Melusina (Mel-oo-SEE-nuh) is not your typical Disney fairy. A strong-willed, precocious girl who lives alone on an isolated tower on a mountain with her mom and two sisters, Melusina daydreams about the outside world. When she becomes a teen, her mother finally explains why they live in isolation: it’s Dad’s fault! So Melusina ambushes her father, locks him up in a cave, and tosses the key.
Thinking she has done her mother a huge favor, Melusina is shocked when her mother condemns her actions. Her mother curses her to turn into a snake from the waist down, every Saturday, for the rest of her life. (We’ve all been there.) Moreover, her mother prophesies that her only way to blend into human society is to find a human man who will love her and agree to marry her—as long as that man never views her on Saturdays. Should this man find her in her vile snake form, however, she will be cursed to eternal exile.
Jonathan has extensively researched the story of Melusina. Through several Yale scholarships, he has traveled to Germany, Luxembourg, and France to study medieval depictions and artifacts of the legend, and he has put on several workshop performances of original Melusina songs.
In addition to being bizarre and very funny, Melusina’s life is complicated. Her family and her society rejected her, and she had to forge her own path faced with only bad options. A half-human, half-fairy creature who casually turns into a snake, Melusina finds a man to marry, raises ten children (most of whom have disabilities and deformities), and builds castles using her magical powers. She has made such a name for herself that a thousand years later, her descendants still pray to her and ask for her blessings.
With the support of the Chauncey Fellowship, Jonathan is working very hard to continue composing Melusina songs and constructing his musical, and hopes to bring it to local and regional stages in 2025.
Hey, by the way, are you a librettist or dramaturg interested in this kind of thing? Consider getting in touch!
Check out these rehearsal recordings of two Melusina songs by the brilliant soprano Jacqueline Kaskel and the Yale Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro William Boughton.
“Wilt or Wander“: Newly cursed by her mom, Melusina feels frustrated, misunderstood, and trapped. Will she accept a life of safety and solitude wilting away in her castle, or will she seek a place in human society while risking an eternity of wandering?
“Curse Versus Love”: A really nice guy named Raymond has not only agreed to marry Melusina, but also to leave her alone on Saturdays. Great! Melusina got what she wants, right? Not so fast… Melusina is flooded with hallucinations of all the ills that could befall her in her marriage.
