Word: opera
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...opening sequence. Dad dead, it's off to sunny Italy for Caterina and Joey. The obligatory opening night sequence is filled with lots of American extras running about trying to look Italian by wildly gesticulating and screaming 'Brava, Brava.' Bertolucci also drags out an antiquated collection of cliches about opera and its fans. His women parade about a la Gertrude Stein and partake of lesbian love with decadent Italian countesses. His men lisp on about 'darlin' Caterina and swish about backstage. It would be funny if it weren't so offensive...
...like giant Weeble rebounding to its feet, Potter returns to Marilyn's doorstep. A scene in Boston Garden heralds the end of this opera: he proposes to Marilyn. Another unmarried man breaks ranks...
...music the principal target was Shostakovich. Though laden with Stalin Prizes, he was now being termed the author of "un-Soviet, unwholesome, eccentric, tuneless" works. He knew what to do. In 1936 he had nearly lost his life after receiving a public "whipping" for an opera that had displeased Stalin. Following a Central Committee resolution condemning him in 1948, he publicly expressed "deep gratitude" to the Communist Party for pointing out his shortcomings...
Even his powerful reorchestration of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov was meant to dramatize the opera's message that an "antipeople government" is "inevitably" a criminal government. The composer believes that the score makes the point even more clearly than the Alexander Pushkin play on which the libretto is based. "For me, the abstract art-music-is more effective," he says...
...opulent score has long attracted a cult following. It is justifiable in such numbers as Standing on the Corner, Big D and Don 't Cry. The evening's choicest prize is the marvel of the human voice - unamplified. Opera star Tozzi sings with the richness of burnished bronze and Daniels complements him with her pellucid soprano. They and their colleagues practice vocal witchcraft. -T.E.K...