Bella Domna (2018)

song cycle for mezzo and piano

While most poems by the trobairitz — female troubadours — are full of internalized misogyny and heteronormative language, a few stand out in their depictions of healthy relationships. “Na Maria,” by Bieiris de Romans, is the only one of these poems written by a woman about another woman. Using that text as a starting point, I selected excerpts from three trobairitz poems and reframed them through a queer lens. The result is a tragic, timeless love story: two women fall madly in love, only to be separated by their own society.