Have You Heard? Do You Know?

With some trepidation, Talma wrote her own libretto for the 1976 chamber opera Have You Heard? Do You Know?, a work about the Cold War and the desire for utopias (when the bomb drops, where would you run to?). For Talma, who lived a great part of her life in the hustle-bustle of Manhattan, this opera may have been reflective of her joy in spending time at the peaceful woods of the MacDowell Colony. While she referred to the opera as amusing, it may well have been autobiographical to a large extent.