Word: dello
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...Francisco's War Memorial Opera House last week, the Ford Foundation got the first dividend on its $950,000 grant to U.S. composers for 18 new operas: the premiére of Norman Dello Joio's Blood Moon. Judged by critical response, Blood Moon was a bad bargain. "It does not send you out singing," complained the Chronicle's Alfred Frankenstein. The Examiner's Alexander Fried was more biting. Blood Moon, said he, hovered "between an ambitious grand opera manner and light-opera clich...
...Composer Dello Joio, at least, seemed unconcerned. He is convinced that his frankly romantic music (The Ruby, The Triumph of St. Joan) has a delayed effect. "The people who work closely with my music get things you can't hear the first time," says he. "To quote Verdi, 'Time will decide...
...immigrant Italian organist, Dello Joio likes to think of himself as a spiritual descendant of Verdi. Blood Moon tells the story of Ninette Lafont, a beautiful octoroon actress who flees New Orleans on the eve of the Civil War to forget her doomed love for Raymond Barlac, a Southern aristocrat. The wide-ranging plot, based on Dello Joio's own scenario, gave Designer Rouben Ter-Arutunian ample scope for lush sets that imparted a sense of grandeur to the opera's five scenes. American Soprano Mary Costa, who played Ninette, sang beautifully but seemed lost in the schmalz...
...opening performance, Norman Dello Joio's incidental music was often highly obtrusive, especially the brass tuckets. The softer portions, such as the supernatural music and the funeral music for Antony, are also of far better quality...
...Norman Dello Joio, song and opera composer