Incidental Music for Waiting for Godot

In 1961, “Summer Theatre at the Sticky Wicket” featured Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, which Hughes had conducted during his graduate years at the University of Buffalo; Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Aria da Capo, for which Hughes composed incidental music; and Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice. Sidney Jowers created the costumes for all three offerings. Hughes served as Drama Director and Conductor for the Stravinsky and Gluck works. In 1962 the summer program, renamed The New Vic Theatre, featured Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme; “An Evening in Salzburg 1790 (Music by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven written for the outdoor gardens of Salzburg)”; An Intimate Evening with Geddis and Martin, Actors with Puppets (and not for children); and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Hughes conducted the three music programs and composed this incidental music for Beckett’s play.