Finding one's voice is an elusive matter for composers - a combination of circumstances that may or may not be in their control, plus the unpredictable factor of artistic evolution. Somebody like Jennifer Higdon doesn't necessarily wake up in the morning and declare herself ready to write, say, a tuba concerto. People come to her with those kinds of requests, and if the … [Read more...] about Life gets lush: Gregory Spears meets The Crossing
American musical theater mythology: What does it say? What can it say? How much do we care?
The quickest way to the public's heart is through the manipulated past. Politicians through the ages have played upon the public's national identity by conjuring up nostalgia for an age that never quite existed but has a close-enough resemblance to one that did. Then comes the promise of recapturing that lost world. (I'm sure you can think of examples.) In theater, … [Read more...] about American musical theater mythology: What does it say? What can it say? How much do we care?
Sympathy for the monster: Frankenstein opera-in-progress debuts at Green-Wood Cemetery
After walking through David Lang's Mile Long Opera on the High Line last week, Gregg Kallor's double bill of The Tell-Tale Heart and still-in-progress Frankenstein at the Green-Wood Cemetery catacomb almost seemed mainstream. Well, somewhat. There was a genuine acoustic, a real piano, cultivated singers and a literary base line in operatic works drawn from Edgar Allen Poe and … [Read more...] about Sympathy for the monster: Frankenstein opera-in-progress debuts at Green-Wood Cemetery
The near-accidental eloquence of The Mile-Long Opera by David Lang
Walking into The Mile-Long Opera by David Lang, I thought I knew what opera is. Well, the definition didn't change. But the piece, performed last week on New York's elevated walkway known as The High Line, changed the boundaries of opera, theater and artistic expression, and in ways that I couldn't have imagined before taking the elevator up three floors and then trudging from … [Read more...] about The near-accidental eloquence of The Mile-Long Opera by David Lang
Soon-to-be Met composer Missy Mazzoli merges her selves in ‘Proving Up’
When Metropolitan Opera czar Peter Gelb dashed from the Miller Theatre to a waiting car after the Friday performance of the opera Proving Up, I would've given more than a penny for his (unfiltered) thoughts. Only days before, he and new music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin announced the first female composers to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and one of them … [Read more...] about Soon-to-be Met composer Missy Mazzoli merges her selves in ‘Proving Up’