Susannah

ACT I

The scene opens on a church square dance in the small Tennessee mountain town of New Hope Valley. Susannah Polk, an 18-year-old girl and the town beauty, is dancing happily while the wives of the four church Elders gossip bitterly about her. The dance is interrupted by the arrival of the Reverend Olin Blitch, an evangelical preacher who has “come to New Hope Valley to cast out devils and conquer sin and bring sinners to repentance.” He takes an interest in Susannah, and the wives tell him that she is an orphan raised by her drunken brother. He promises to pray for her soul, and then dances with her, while the wives cluck their tongues and scoff that the girl “will come to no good.”

Susannah walks home, accompanied by Little Bat, who fancies her and often tags along wherever she goes. Happy after such a fun evening, she pauses to gaze up at the stars and remark upon the beautiful evening (aria - ”Ain’t It a Pretty Night?”). When she gets home, she tells her brother Sam, who