Update: "Three Decembers"

By -
Not all reviewers gave the new opera "Three Decembers" a luke warm reception. Eman Isadiar of the Epoch Times said,

"Heggie’s music is richly textured and primarily tonal with occasional forays into far-off, sophisticated harmonies. While innovative and moving, Jake Heggie’s music alone is not why Three Decembers is a remarkable contemporary opera, nor is the brilliance of Frederica von Stade as its central figure. Even a fine librettist such as Gene Scheer with his heart-piercing words cannot be credited as the opera’s single most important component, nor can the poignant storyline of the original play by Terrence McNally.

"It is when all of the above line up in perfect order—much like a rare astronomical convergence—that a great work of art is born. Ladies and gentlemen, Three Decembers is that work of art."

However, Jason Victor Serinus from the Bay Area Reporter was not as favorable. He really wanted to love it. The first third of the article is all about how much this opera had going for it. But in the end he said,

"The problem, I regret to say, lay squarely with music and libretto. A host of operas have managed to transcend handicapped librettos by dint of music too ravishing to be ignored – Il Trovatore and scores of baroque masterpieces come to mind. But Heggie's music is not that. Rather than seizing the heart, as he did so well in Dead Man Walking, Heggie chose to write music whose inner tension rarely if ever reflected the heart-tugging dramas of its protagonists. Mother Madeleine may have spent four decades constructing an outward persona that would hide a horrible tragedy, and Charlie may have spent well over 10 years living with a beloved struggling with, then dying of AIDS, but Heggie chose to connect these situations with music that too often had the ambling gait of a Vince Guaraldi score for a Peanuts cartoon.

"...here's hoping that Heggie and Scheer refine and deepen the work before its next production. It ought to evoke raves rather than shrugs."

Since there are more performances in other locations, I agree with Mr Serinus, a bit more work and there may yet be hope for more rave reviews.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more