Alice Goodman

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Alice Goodman
Alice Goodman, History is Our Mother (ISBN 9781681370644).jpeg
Born1958 (age 67–68)
St. Paul, Minnesota
OccupationLibrettist, priest
NationalityAmerican
Genrepoetry, opera
Notable works Nixon In China , The Death of Klinghoffer
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1987;died 2016)​
Children1
Poster for a production of Nixon in China at Oper Dortmund, 2023 Dortmund Kampstr Nixon in China IMG 20230315 1145.jpg
Poster for a production of Nixon in China at Oper Dortmund, 2023

Alice Goodman, Lady Hill (born 1958 [1] ) is an American poet and librettist. She is also an Anglican priest, working in England. [2]

Contents

Biography

Goodman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended and graduated from Breck School. She studied English and American literature at Harvard University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1980, and Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a further BA in 1982. [3] During the 1980s she published poems in venues such as Poetry [4] and the London Review of Books . [5] She received her Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from the Boston University School of Theology in 1997. [3]

She wrote the libretti for the first two operas of John Adams, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer . Goodman continued writing with Adams on his next opera, Doctor Atomic , but withdrew from this project after a year. A decade after the eventual premiere of that opera, she wrote the text for a choral cantata by Tarik O'Regan (A Letter of Rights, 2015), commissioned as part of the celebrations for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta . [6]

In 2017, NYRB published Goodman's texts for Nixon and Klinghoffer, along with her translation of the libretto for The Magic Flute , as the collection History is Our Mother: Three Libretti, with an introduction by James Williams. [7]

She was raised as a Reform Jew, and converted to Christianity as an adult, in 1989. [8] [9] From 2000 to 2001, she trained for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon. [3] She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2001 and as a priest in 2002. [3] In 2006, Alice Goodman took up the post of chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge, [10] and in 2011 became Rector of a group of parishes in Cambridgeshire including Fulbourn. [11]

Goodman married the noted English poet Geoffrey Hill in 1987. The couple has one daughter, Alberta. [12]

References

  1. ↑ "Alice Goodman - National Portrait Gallery".
  2. ↑ White (30 August 2005) p. E2
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Alice Abigail Goodman" . Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing . Retrieved 30 January 2026.
  4. ↑ "The Chemical Blonde by Alice Goodman | Poetry Magazine". Poetry Magazine. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  5. ↑ Goodman, Alice (3 December 1981). "Alice Goodman · Poem: 'As with the commander of an army so is it with the mistress of a house' · LRB 3 December 1981". London Review of Books. 03 (22). Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Celebrating Magna Carta in music". BBC. June 14, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Alice Goodman, History is Our Mother". NYRB. 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2026.
  8. ↑ May, Thomas (22 August 2017). "She Gave Words to Opera's Nixon (Published 2017)". The New York Times . Retrieved 12 January 2022. 1989
  9. ↑ Berman, Paul (October 23, 2014). "Klinghoffer at the Met". Tablet. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Trinity College
  11. ↑ "Fulbourn Village Guide". 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  12. ↑ Mansfield (22 August 2005)
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