Word: libretto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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After drama, VI-4 turned to lighter motifs, as exemplified in The Courting of Montebravado (music by Alexander S. Ness ’04 and libretto by Andrew B. Pacelli ’03). The fifteen minute opera is set in four short scenes that mimick and make fun of the traditional Italian court opera. The Italian names are unseemly and the plot deals with true love impeded by money-loving clergy and arranged marriage, which is ultimately saved by murder. The story is quite obviously a farce—and an entertaining one, especially in light of the fact...
...program began with a surrealist drama entitled strapped (music by Matthew T. O’Malley ’04 and libretto by Anthony J. Gabriele ’03) that was cast with four vocalists named simply “him,” “her,” “man” and “woman.” In strapped, a lonely figure called “him” sits head in hands on a dark stage, illuminated throughout by one misty spotlight. The “man?...
...program concluded with a fascinating opera entitled Dr. Magic, the only libretto not written by an undergraduate, performed as an oratorio with minimal stage movement. The premise of Dr. Magic, written by Joyce Carol Oates with music by composer Carson P. Cooman ’04, derives directly from the hero of the title, a crafty magician. Dr. Magic invites a couple to the stage as volunteers and his interaction and experimentation on them scratch the seemingly ideal surface of their lives together...
Cooman’s music is tonally striking and rhythmically driven in a way that lends the opera surprising immediacy. Tonal contrast and dynamic changes fit the libretto perfectly, and still manages to avoidspredictability entirely. The listener is forced to move along with the opera’s fluctuations and pangs of emotion, such that at the end the audience aches for some peaceful resolution...
...chamber ensemble. The operas include the psychological drama “Dr. Magic,” with music by Carson P. Cooman ’04 and “Strapped,” with music by Matthew T. O’Malley ’04 and a libretto by Anthony Gabriele ’03. Through Sunday, April 6 at 8 p.m. Tickets $6 general, $5 students (limit 2 per ID), $4 Leverett House residents, available at the Harvard Box Office...