Ann Patchett's novel, Bel Canto, was given to me by my partner's mother, probably because of the musical interest. It concerns the incident in Lima, Peru in 1996/7 when a group of young revolutionaries held people hostage for 3 months in the Japanese ambassador's house. The novel uses a young operatic soprano as one of its focuses and music is a key element, partly because the soprano is defined in her relationships by people's reaction to her singing, also as some of the hostages are Japanese there is a language barrier and music become a key element in communication.
Not surprisingly, the book is being turned into an opera. The Lyric Opera of Chicago will be premiering the work in their 2015/16 season, with Danielle de Niese in the lead role of Roxanne Coss. The book seems to have been the starting point, with Renee Fleming, who is creative consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, selecting it as a good subject for an opera. The composer will be the Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez; Lopez studied in his native Peru as well as in Finland and in California and seems to be based in Finland. It looks like it will be his first opera, there is an interesting post on his blog here.
Of course, with any new opera an important part of the process is the libretto, this is being written by the Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz. Cruz seems to have strong musical credentials having written the book to at least one musical and collaborated with Gabriela Lena Frank on several operas and a set of orchestral songs.
So the auguries look promising.
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Handel: Acis and Galatea ; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Ch...
-
2019 seemed a year for scholarship and rarity in recordings. Retrospect Opera gave us the first recording of Ethel Smyth's Fete Galan...
-
Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna - John Savournin - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna ;...
-
Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - James Atkinson - Wild Arts 2023 (Photo: Lucy J Toms) We humans, alone on earth, are powerful enough to crea...
-
Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Handel: Giulio Cesare in Eg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) American composer Andrew Norman ...
-
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro ; David...
-
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022 Opera ...
No comments:
Post a Comment