Bridge-themed opera

[zelani]

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:

 

BILL One heart.

GERALDINE Two clubs.

SALLY Two hearts.

DAVID Pass.

BILL Four hearts.

GERALDINE Five clubs.

SALLY Five hearts.

DAVID Pass.

BILL Pass.

GERALDINE Pass.

DAVID You play.

SALLY Once again I’m dummy, forever dummy.

BILL Don’t boast; put down your cards.

(to Geraldine) You lead.

 

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:

 

SALLY ... (to Bill) From the table, darling!

 

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:

 

SALLY (to Bill) The Queen, you have trumped the Queen!

 

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:

 

SALLY Ace of hearts.

DAVID Nine of spades.

GERALDINE Your trick.

BILL Out of trump!

GERALDINE The King of diamonds, David! The hand is yours.

DAVID Okay. (...) (From here on, David is distracted within his own thoughts)

GERALDINE Deuce of spades.

BILL Six of clubs.

SALLY Hearts.

 

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:

 

BILL

Hearts.

 

SALLY

Hearts.

 

DAVID

Trump!

 

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

[kenberg]

A fun task and I did read the entire text. I think you will have trouble reconciling all of this. Some thoughts:

 

 

The opera is called A Hand of Bridge, not A Game of Bridge so if we take it literally it seems it is all one hand in which case trump doesn't change.

 

The sequence

GERALDINE Deuce of spades.

BILL Six of clubs.

at first glance appears to be a play out of turn. However declarer (Bill) calls for cards from the dummy so maybe he is calling for the six of clubs from the exposed hand (Sally).

 

At the end, saying hearts instead of stipulating the rank of the card is possible. If one hand has only hearts (trump) and neither opponent has any hearts left then the size does not matter.

 

However, I think you will not successfully make this into a realistic bridge scenario. Be content with the fact that the bidding is not totally insane ie it is an auction that is not out of the question and the play seems to be at least more or less in accordance with the rules.

 

In short, let's hope the singing is better than the play of the hand!

 

Good luck. I would like to hear how it all turns out.

[gordontd]

I seem to remember this same question was asked on rec.games.bridge a few years ago. You might find some useful responses there.