Word: opera
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...things, but boring isn't one of them. His compositions include Elvis Everywhere, a work for 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...
Does all this really add up to opera? It's hard to say--and that's the point. For like the rest of Daugherty's music, Jackie O resides in the limbo between classical and pop known as "crossover," the rapidly increasing popularity of which is changing American classical music...
...possible for serious composers to mix classical music with rock 'n' roll successfully? Though elements of rock can be heard in the works of such composers as Philip Glass, no one has yet produced a truly crowd-pleasing piece that brings rock into the concert hall or opera house the same way that Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein taught symphony orchestras how to swing...
...Carmen," originally an opera by Georges Bizet, is the name and the story of a seductive young woman in Spain who flirts her way into a violent and ultimately fatal love triangle. At the start of the dance, she seduces a Spanish corporal named Don Jose (Lazlo Berdo), who is in love with a meek girl named Micaela (Larissa Ponomarenko). When Don Jose is jailed for refusing to arrest Carmen, his wild new love captures Escamillo (Gino DiMarco), a proud bullfighter, with her charms. (Music lovers--the "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" theme parades around at this point...
...pieces, but these just doesn't fuse into the one continuously rising dramatic arc of emotion that the music so darkly promises. In the end, you feel you've just seen a series of well-sung pieces--not the complete work of art we think of as great opera...