Hello, all-- I have a few questions that may not be the usual discussion you might have in this forum, but I've looked through lots of bridge-related material on the internet, to no avail. I thought I'd ask the experts, then! The thing is--I'm producing an opera by composer Samuel Barber entitled "A Hand of Bridge", which is exactly that: 9 minutes of music to a bridge game, intertwined with the characters' (two couples) life issues. Since I'm not a bridge player, I've educated myself in the matter, but a few points are still confusing. If I may, the opera opens with the following text: So far, so good. Contract is 5♥; Bill, having mentioned hearts from the beginning, is the declarer, Sally is the dummy (much to her frustration). I'm assuming Bill's admonishing Sally not to "boast" refers to her breach of Bridge convention. Am I right? :) Sally has a brief unrelated monologue, after which she snaps: My interpretation of this is that Bill, distracted, attempted to play a card from his hand when he should have played one of Sally's (the dummy). Moments later, Sally reprehends Bill once more: Does this mean Bill uselessly played a trump over a rubber that was already won? Now for the part that's really troubling. Geraldine has a monologue, after which there is more game: Assuming the contract is still 5♥, I have no idea how to interpret this last round. Also, why does Sally mention only the suit (Hearts), and not the card, as the rest? David then has a monologue, the opera ends with: Assuming, thus, the trump has changed with no textual mention. I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense, but my task is to reenact a game based on loose textual references, and, having no prior experience with bridge, some of it is quite confusing. Thank you very much to anyone who can give me a "hand" here. :) Best, Guilherme Gama São Paulo, Brazil (Attached is the full text to the opera, if anyone's interested) A Hand of Bridge.pdf
