Word: orchestra
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...performance takes place in the Eliot House dining hall, transformed for this occasion into an arena where stage and audience strangely collide. At first, this non-traditional set-up might seem uncomfortable; the orchestra was extremely close, almost at arms-length from the public. But in fact, this proximity--a frequent device of theater and plays--creates an intimate interaction between the audience and the performers, rare in opera these days. What the work loses in majesty, it gains in intimacy and closeness...
Ethan Frome's only flaw is its set and production design. Although it is certainly cozy to be seated near the orchestra and to see all of the musicians, it eventually becomes distracting; the orchestra even drowns out the singing at some points. The stage itself is sparsely decorated: though not out of sync with the plain New England farmhouse of Wharton's novella, it still appears lacking. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the stage is so small that the actors often have nowhere...
...paralyzed from a sledding accident. Although we all fundamentally realize that what happens on the stage is not reality, the opera Ethan Frome could use some fine tuning--from the unpolished scene changes to the deficient set to the fact that one might have a better view of the orchestra than the stage...
...guess I started listening to classical music on the radio when I was little-- just by chance. I remember coming across vocal music later and finding that more pleasing [than purely instrumental music]. I liked the individual achievement, the idea of one person singing there with an entire orchestra...
...sense the script is so solidly seductive that the lines each time they speak. Cy Coleman's music and David Zippel's lyrics are often guilty of stealing the show, ranging from jazz to filmscore to mood tunes, and always spiked with witty lyrics. The fourteen man orchestra does a laudable job of wrapping that music into a tight ball and tossing it out to an audience that lapped it up with fervor...