Saturday, October 08, 2005

Death's Waiting Room

"An hour-long piece for clarinet, soprano, and piano, Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice has most often been described as a song cycle, but the press release for its performance in the American Songbook series called it an opera. As the opening night performance made clear, however, thanks to Doug Varone's choreography, what we really have here is a ballet. The strict definition would be the one used by Kurt Weill to describe his Seven Deadly Sins: "Ballett mit Gesang," a ballet with singing."

More here. Photos here.

More about the background of the composer and this work is here.

Interview with Gordon about the work.

ASCAP has a very nice audio portrait of Gordon. You can hear the composer's voice and music.

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