Premiered March 20th, 2007 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City by
Adriana Zabala (mezzo-soprano) and Gregg Kallor

1. Ribh In Ecstasy
2. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
3. A Coat (listen)
4. The Lady's First Song
5. A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety

IF DICKINSON TASTED “A LIQUOR NEVER BREWED,” William Butler Yeats was drinking from an altogether different vat. With sublime arrogance he rhapsodizes about the moment of creative inspiration in Ribh In Ecstasy. “Godhead on Godhead in sexual spasm begot Godhead” he cries at the climax of this orgiastic torrent. And then, as suddenly as it came, the moment has passed and we are left to bask in literary post-coital bliss. It's a rather earthier sense of exhilaration than the one Dickinson imagined, but potent nonetheless.

Yeats' lilting rhythms and strong cadences - the very sounds of his words - are captivating, but it is the vulnerability in his poems that I find so moving. Amidst the stronger, more Bard-like poems are moment of great tenderness, like this one: “I have spread my dreams under your feet; / Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

-from the liner notes to Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs