Contemporary Opera

[Anne of Green Gables]

This is my absolutely favourite contemporary opera:

[Schigolch]

Nicholas Maw (1935 - 2009) was an English composer of music deceptively "traditional". Though he was considered a melodist, firmly rooted in tonality, he used those elements more as a starting point, that as an absolute reference. In some important works, like his symphony Odyssey, there is certainly an attractive and varied musical language.

His first opera, The Rising of the Moon, was premiered in the 1970s, but his most popular piece is Sophie's Choice, based on the well known novel by William Styron, also adapted for the screen. After several years of hard work, it was offered at the Covent Garden, in 2002, with good singers like Angelika Kirchschlager, Gordon Gietz and Rodney Gilfry, and it was staged also in cities like Vienna, Berlin or Washington.

The reviews were mostly favourable, for the opera itself, and for the good work of the singers and the stage director. However, in my opinion, to be a really fine opera, we need to go beyond some nice melodies and cut the excessive duration.



Sophie's Choice - Beginning

[Schigolch]

The opera Celestina (based on a major 16th century Spanish drama) , by Joaquin Nin-Culmell, was premiered in Madrid, back in 2008.

It was completed in 1965, but it took more than forty years to get the opera staged. The music is at times a little bit monotonous and predictable (with an excess of something resembling medieval modes, and the unavoidable folklore page), but in general terms quite enjoyable. The voice, an almost constant arioso with some moments of melodrama and spoken dialogue, is well managed, very lyrical and intelligilble. This is a good work, though somewhat old-fashioned, nothing we haven't heard before in Debussy or Poulenc.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R51JEQPYSDY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Qzb2kt0ls

[Anne of Green Gables]

Sounds pretty bad to me. No extreme dissonances, it doesn't hurt the ears, but sounds simply boring. After hearing fragments from this video I wouldn't attent performance even for free.

[Almaviva]

To people posting here - So that the post is searchable if someone wants to search operas by the composer, it would be good to mention the name of the composer in the title or body of the post, because the search function won't look into the YouTube video clips.

[Schigolch]

Thomas Pasatieri is one of the most prolific composers of our times. It's a little bit strange but he wrote seventeen operas between 1964 and 1986, and then nothing until the year 2007, when he premiered Frau Margot and The Hotel Casablanca. In this youtube we can hear about it:



His major success was The Seagull, premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1974, based on Chekhov. We can hear this opera complete in youtube:

[superhorn]

Is this composer Finzi related to the English composer Gerald Finzi , who was born around the turn of the century and died in the 80s ? Though not very famous today , he was highly regarded in his native England .
About two years go, the Dallas opera did the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Moby Dick, based on the classic whaling novel by
Melville , and from all reports it was very enthusiastically received by the audience . Ben Heppner created the role of Captain Ahab , and by all reports was extraordinary int he role . Heggie's "Dead Man Walking" , based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean about her friendship with a young man who brutally murdered two teenage sweethearts and was executed has
been performed successfully in San francisco (premiere, New York , and even Germany , and the premiere was recorded for
release on CD.

[Schigolch]

No, they are not related.

Heggie's operas are very succesful in the US.

[superhorn]

This thread shows that opera is very much a living art form , despite the popularity of operas from the past,
and this is a very good thing !

[Schigolch]

Alive and kicking, yes.




The recently deceased Mexican composer Daniel Catán was very fond of Opera.

His music is frankly tonal, written more in resemblance to Puccini or Strauss, than to the music being done in the last 80 years. He was a good melodist, and was also always looking for interesting timbrical details.

In 1994 he composed Rapaccini's daughter, based on Hawthorne and Octavio Paz, with a libretto by Juan Tovar. Perhaps his better work, with a surprisingly fresh neo-Romantic style. Nothing we haven't heard before, but very nice.





Then came Florencia en el Amazonas, inspired in García Márquez's novels. It was premiered in 1996 at Houston, and was well received by the audience, and not so much welcome by the critics. This is pure melody and the singing goes from an attractive arioso to arias sounding more to the 19th century, than to the end of the 20th.



Salsipuedes was a major drop, a kind of slapstick, but that musically was not beyond a Carmen Miranda's movie.

Naturally, Il Postino is now his best known opera, though in my view is clearly inferior to Rapaccini's and even Florencia:

[Schigolch]

Australian composer Liza Lim premiered some years ago the opera The Navigator, in Melbourne, inspired by Tristan und Isolde and some tales from Hinduism. It had been also performed in Brisbane, Paris and Moscow:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvnAwCcDl6U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71heBP8y5Lg

[Schigolch]

In the US, as proven by the great number of local companies and learning centers, outside of the great cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston,... (we have in our "Read" section an interview with one of those learning centers, and will soon have one with a local Opera company) there is a healthy interest in Opera.

Let's take another example, with a young composer, Evan Mack, that premiered recently a piece at New York's Baryshnikov Arts Center, under the title of Angel of the Amazon, based in the killing of the nun Dorothy Stang in the Brazilian Amazonic city of Boa Esperanza.

Sometimes, you don't need big means, just big dreams. With a piano, a marimba, two violins, two cellos and one guitar, you can write a 90 minutes lenght opera.

A couple of arias from the piece, performed at a modest recital in a hotel:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JirDEyzREXs

[Almaviva]

Sounds like a compelling piece. Let's hope it gets shown complete somewhere.

[Schigolch]

After winning the Zurich Opera Prize for young composers, Anno Schreier has premiered there "Die Stadt der Blinden", based on the novel by José Saramago, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira.

[Almaviva]

After winning the Zurich Opera Prize for young composers, Anno Schreier has premiered there "Die Stadt der Blinden", based on the novel by José Saramago, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira.

Wow! I love this book. Is the opera complete on YouTube? If yes, even though I'm not one for watching opera on YouTube, I may give this one a try.