Word: libretto
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...string quartet and three Elvis impersonators on tape; Desi, a woodwind tribute to I Love Lucy; and Metropolis Symphony, a five-movement orchestral salute to Superman. And on March 14, Daugherty's first opera, Jackie O, about guess who, was produced by Houston Grand Opera. Set to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the panegyric 1995 book Jackie Under My Skin, Jackie O is a surreal fantasy in which the former First Lady rubs shoulders with Liz Taylor and Andy Warhol, falls in and out of love with Aristotle Onassis and sings a climactic duet of posthumous reconciliation with...
...milk the sappy humor in "Hoffmann," the directors urged the title character to belt out a booming "Stel-la!" at the end, as his beloved runs off with the enemy, much to the delight of the laughing audience. Who knows what's next? Maybe a posthumous Tennessee Williams libretto. (Hey, it worked for Marge Simpson...
...relief to say that Alan Parker's film, which opens on Christmas Day, is a pretty damn fine one, well cast and handsomely visualized--easily the best adaptation of a Broadway-style musical in decades. It is faithful to the sting and breadth of Tim Rice's libretto, to the ravishing Andrew Lloyd Webber score that synthesizes Broadway, opera and pop with the lilt of Latino lounge music. But this Evita is not just a long, complex music video; it works and breathes like a real movie, with characters worthy of our affection and deepest suspicions. For at the heart...
...somehow more innocent and pure than his fellow men despite his almost immediate adoption of Jenny (Laura Bewig) as his prostitute and lover. Director Kirk Williams portrays Jimmy's dissatisfaction as stemming from Mahagonny's obvious flaws (its lack of concern for anything other than human pleasure), while the libretto itself and an understanding of Brecht's theater would indicate that Jimmy is no better than his fellow men and that he becomes dissatisfied when the leaders of the city begin to put restrictions ("Don't catch more than three fish," "Please be careful with the chairs") on his freedom...
Brecht's original libretto ends with the city's destruction by fire. Although the director has chosen to end on a more ambiguous note, the production staff compensated by raising the dining hall to near-broiling temperatures...