Goldenthal was indeed working on an opera a few summers ago when I worked with him in NY. I have not heard anything about a premiere, but if I remember right it was to be premiered in 2000 or 2001. The opera's libretto is based off of Grendel. If I hear anything I will let you know.

There are not any good Goldenthal websites out as of yet, but one is in the works. I saw a page of it and it looks fantastic.

Could you tell me a bit about Grendel? I have no idea who that is...what sort of litterature did he(?) write?

Hope to see Goldenthal's opera staged soon. His ballet was well received, so the opera should have good chances of success.

I tried to get Goldenthal's Fire, Water, Paper last week, but of couse the store where I had seen it two weeks ago didn't have it anymore, and they couldn't find it in their database.

For more info on the Beowulf poem visit http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/eliot/722/index.htm

SFT

NP: Welles Raises Kane, Herrmann *****/*****

in fact, the story is the inspiration behind Eaters of the Dead, a.k.a. The 13th Warrior.

Marian:

you will link here for a cheap copy of Fire Water Paper.

I just read about the site yesterday in Fanfare Magazine and so I don't know about their shipping and all that.

go to it!

NP -- The Score, Shore

quote:

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Originally posted by Aaron Collins:
The opera's libretto is based off of Grendel.

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Everybody's thinking Beowulf, but when Aaron mentioned this I assumed he was talking about John Gardner's novel Grendel, which tells the first part of the Beowulf story from the monster's perspective.

An elaborate set-piece, a huge almost 50ft high rotating wall that cost nearly $1 million dollars to build caused delays in the LA run but seems to be working in NY.

Tommasini is hit & miss on the score dissing it for certain reasons and, if not praising it, passing it for others.

On the one hand:

"There is a film score quality to the opera which for tedious stretches sounds derivative. Textures are layered so thickly in places that any details and nuances get lost in undulant mists of sound. Mr. Goldenthal builds prolonged passages atop ominously sustained pedal tones, with routine touches: skittish instrumental outbursts, volleys of percussion, wandering contrapuntal lines. What explains Mr. Goldenthal's penchant for continually doubling the vocal line in the orchestra? If the idea is to underline the lyricism of the vocal parts, the results are heavy-handed."

Not too long ago I started a topic around the idea that music is hard to talk about--I didn't realize that for those who find it easy, I might actually want them to shut up.

In any case, Mr. Tommasini doesn't leave things at that:

"Parts of the score are effectively evocative: some Minimalist riffs with asymmetrical meters, a pontillistic scene for Grendel, swooshing crescendos that recall untethereed passages in Sibelius, hints of Stravinsky and razzle-dazzle jazz. There is also a nifty episode of clanking percussion. Whenever Mr. Goldenthal thins out the score and writes more subtly, the music starts to grab you. A blind old harpist has two effective scenes. Harmonies are finally more lucid, the orchestra evokes a strummed lyre, with just hints of inner voices. When Wealtheow appears, she sings radiant lines through shifting keys with impressionistic orchestral harmonies. In the final scene, the simplicity of the moment, with wholes lines of text spoken by the chorus, bluntly sung choral refrains and pummeling percussion, comes as a relief."

He finally sums up his experience:

"Given the intricacies of the story, I wish the creators had been more concerned with clear storytelling. The opera is so loaded down with philiosophical mumbo jumbo, extravagent staging effects and needlessly layered music, that it is sometimes hard to know what is happening."

But despite how he saw the thing, he mentions that "the audience's ovation was enthusiastic."

The reviewer seems to think the complexity of the whole project bogged things down. But his description just made it sound like a typical Goldenthal score (which might not be so bad to some ears).

Obviously, I can't endorse the thing one way or the other myself not being in either LA or NYC to see it. Maybe the music will see a CD or even DVD at some point and which time more of us will be able to judge.