Out: Ezra Laderman's Marilyn, which I was deeply looking forward to, owing to budgetary constraints and difficulties in casting the title character. Ezra Laderman lived in Teaneck when I was growing up, and one of his kid was a buddy of mine back in the day, so I was looking forward to this.
In: A tasty double bill called Sin City, consisting of Weil's Mahagonny Singspiel and Daron Hagen's Vera of Los Angeles. I don't know a thing about the latter, but it's a promising program!
Kudos to West Edge Opera for honesty, for getting the word out early, and for imaginative repertory. I hope y'all can put on the Laderman some day. And I'm looking forward to Ariadne.
5 comments:
You were looking forward to Marilyn because you've never heard it. I flew to New York whenever it was for the premiere (mostly because City Opera paired it with Hugo Weisgall's Esther, which SFO had commissioned [under McEwen} and then scrapped [Mansouri]). And believe me, this was the right call on the merits.
I'm assuming that "budgetary constraints and difficulties in casting" is a euphemism for "Oh shit, we just looked at the score."
Oh, hahahaha! I yield to your superior, that is to say actual, knowledge of the piece.
What did you think of Esther? I have an unopened recording of it at home.
Oh, you know I wasn't trying to pull rank :) It's just, I couldn't believe it when West Edge announced this piece, because if I've ever heard the premiere of a piece I was pretty certain was a once-and-done, Marilyn was it.
Esther isn't much better IMO -- well, no, I take that back. It's a respectable example of a certain kind of dull, upright sort of thing that I personally don't have much use for. And I think I probably stand with a majority of audiences on that point. But for people who appreciate midcentury American modernism, it's probably catnip.
You were not pulling rank.
Pulling rank is "I'm the reviewer for [some print publication here] and you're not, so I know better," which is not the same as "I've heard the piece and I agree with their decision to perform something else."
The opera is called VERA OF LAS VEGAS. You can learn more about it here: VERA OF LAS VEGAS OFFICIAL WEBSITE
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