New Opera: "Leave Me Alone!"

By -

Two Cleveland natives have written a new opera, Leave Me Alone! which premieres Saturday, January 31, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Finney Chapel (Cleveland). The performance will also be streamed live to an international audience online at www.LeaveMeAloneOpera.com. Iconic underground comic book author Harvey Pekar wrote the libretto for jazz saxophonist Dan Plonsey.

The live Internet performance of this opera has me most intrigued. "Doctor Horrible" was an Internet broadcast of a musical (in three episodes) that was a cult hit, but part of that is due to Josh Weeden, who has a huge following from his "Buffy the Vampire" and "Serenity" ("Fire Fly") series'. If this opera can achieve the same kind of notoriety, than composers may get the opportunity to present new works without the long protracted process required by opera houses today. So, mark the date on your calendar and listen in (or if you're anywhere near Cleveland, go to see if live!).

The concept of the music sounds interesting. This from the website, "my music comes about as an accretion of bits of mis-remembered music from around the world, organized according to: the modernist principle of the organic; the post-modern recognition that everything goes with everything else; and the post-post-modern rejection of things clever, overworked and cynical, opting instead for simple presentation of beauties both mysterious and obvious. In concrete terms, this means working with a small ensemble of multi-instrumentalists, chosen more for their personal qualities as for instrumental abilities. The music features meandering melodies, accompaniments, and bass lines which each pull in different and unexpected directions, reasonably and unreasonably." It will be interesting to hear if the vocalists perform the music in a more operatic (bel canto) style, or whether they are more jazz vocalists in performance.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi there,
I'm one of the singers who will be in "Leave Me Alone" in January, and we'll be singing in a jazz style (though some of us are classically trained).
:)
December 25, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Chip Michael said…
So, does that mean you'll be approaching the text more with a musical feel, or with a operatic feel?

Any other thoughts on the rehearsal process, the pre-production experience would be greatly appreciated....
December 25, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm not sure what you mean by musical vs. operatic feel.
December 25, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Chip Michael said…
The way a vocalist approaches the music in a music is much different than they do for an opera. The sound of song sung in an operatic style is very different than one done is a musical style. Musical singing tends to be more "honest" and yet not as pure. An opera style will focus more on the sound quality of the note, where a musical style will focus more on the words clarity. Consonants are more important in musicals, where vowels are more important in operas. These are all generalizations, but typical delineations between the two styles.
December 26, 2008 at 2:28 AM
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 &quo
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

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more