Sam and the Boys

It is a gloomy day in New Jersey. My desk is cluttered, and I have yet to work up the motivation to do all the work I need to complete before I go home on Tuesday evening. Maybe I will be able to after I write all of this...
Wednesday hosted a performance I have been looking forward to for quite some time; a performance of Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the New York City Opera. After a very quick meal at what seems to the only restaurant I eat at in New York, we flew across the street. I must say I was not disapointed. This piece has long been an opera I have admired and the cast delivered the beauty of the drama and the incredible score. Of course, wth and opera by Menotti one can only expect there would be slow moments. But the great moments of neo-romanticism far outweighed the periods of dragging drama. The beginning was especially exciting, with Must the Winter Come So Soon? and Do Not Utter a Word back to back. The cast delivered and made a fantastic evening in the theater.
Today I have been listening to the English composers. Finzi, Bax, Gibbons. Lately I am also entranced by Baltic composers - Vasks, Part, Gorecki (Polish, eh?). Who said great music comes in one package?

I have been spending a lot of time with these words...

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.

Well, now I am going to try to write a paper. Then, a nap? ;)

The trail starts here...

This past Friday, two friends and I went to Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. Those of you who follow contemporary music know that this is currently the home of Paul Moravec. American Opera Projects was hosting a reading of Tarik O'Regan's new opera Heart of Darkness. The evening began with the composer and his librettist, Tom Philips, talking about the work. It was heard in Princeton last year, but at that time less than half was completed. Tarik was clear that he was glad that this evening you the opera would only be presented with the piano reduction and not the complete thirteen instrument orchestra. His ideas were intriguing, but it goes without saying that much of the orchestral color is lost in the reduction.
The reading itself was very exciting. Presenting a work in this way is bound to create an awkward situation. Singers have to walk around, scores in hand, dressed differently, and approaching the work from different levels of dramaticism. There were several singers who seemd to be genuinly connected with the work, not just walking through it awaiting their paycheck. Reading through the biographies, I was shocked at how the majority of the singers did not list extensive experience in new music. One of the most powerful passages in the whole piece was the "lament" sung by the Mysterious Woman of the River. Jeanine Debique sang fantastically over the soft, colorful sounds of the men accompanying her. It was stunning. I await a complete production of this piece.

In other news...
This afternoon I got onto my computer to find an email from the Executive Director of the Princeton Singers. I was excited to read I have been accepted to sing with them for this season. We have a very eclectic year of music from all places and traditions. I sang a concert with them two weeks ago of Indian music - what a great challenge.
This evening I will start working on setting a Shakespeare sonnet for my friend's choir in Tokyo. I am still debating between two, but need to begin work to get it to him soon. He asked me to write it for a competition early this spring. I also have a premiere in Jakarta, Indonesia at the end of this month. It is an exciting year of premieres!

Next topic - Philip Glass.