Eyes of the Unknown

mezzo-soprano and piano
2025

Duration 16’
First Performance 12 April 2026, 5pm, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.; Abi Levis mezzo-soprano, Michael Brofman piano more info
Commissioned by Brooklyn Art Song Society

Charlotte has a worldwide, exclusive publishing agreement with Birdsong
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Poetry by Forugh Farrokhzad, in translation by Sholeh Wolpé

The Sun Rises

In The Sun Rises, love appears first as intoxication: a dream of overflowing desire suspended in night and darkness. Yet even within shadow, stars burn — small, searching lights, guiding forces in the vast unknown. The poem inhabits the space between obscurity and illumination, longing and fulfilment. Farrokhzad’s imagery evokes the silk of night air, taste the sweetness of desire and the coolness before dawn. The music responds through shifting textures: lines unfold and turn in the light, colours soften and intensify, and surfaces shimmer before dissolving.

The Wind Will Blow Us Away

This song begins in rebellion and unease. There is a sense of danger and fragility: happiness feels temporary, easily shattered, while the silence of night seems charged with threat. The music responds with urgency, anxious propulsion and restless gestures.

Then comes a turning point: “May you be green.” The poem suddenly opens towards renewal — green becomes the colour of wild and unapologetic love. The music pivots too: lines widen, harmonies warm and breath returns. Anxiety gives way to surrender. Farrokhzad’s voice, often in defiance of the strictures of her society, makes love an intimate act of resistance — a refusal to yield to fear. The shadows recede, leaving what matters most: you and I, together.

I Will Greet the Sun Again

This final song is suffused with remembrance and return, looking simultaneously towards what has been lost and what might yet come. The natural world — wind, earth, birds, sky — is ever-present; memory becomes landscape.

The repeated declaration “I will come” is an assertion of presence and continuity, resonant and unshakeable. Transformation emerges in the image of the flock of crows: creatures associated with darkness become symbols of power and renewal. Hair rising from the earth evokes rebirth, as though the poet herself, though gone, emerges once more to greet the sun. Death is not an ending but a passage into light. The music gradually sheds its weight, moving towards peace and fulfilment. In the end, the greeting is not only to the sun, but to life itself — embraced again with courage, sensuality, and hope.