Nothing taken amiss at all I wasn't very clear in saying what I wanted anyhow - which is that if we are aiming to produce Music-Theatre, then both sides of that have to be equally good. It's only very rarely that librettos ever seem to come in for criticism, yet all too often they have led composers down the garden path.  After all, without wanting to rehash a well-worn argument, one would like to hope that in most cases some idea, story, concept or fantasy has led the composer to want to bring it to the stage via music...  rather than having some nice music in search of a decent story to hang it upon?   I am intrigued by what you were saying about the creation of Music-Theatre, though...  all too often the music has been relegated to second place, and I'm left thinking "this would have been a good play"  Trying to make the music TELL the story, instead of merely accompany it, seems to be at the heart of what we ought to be about?  (Sorry to keep using the word "story" - it's just a shorthand for "conceptual material", it doesn't have to be a linear story, of course).

Returning to the topic of... what was it again?... ah, Philip Glass, I can't help thinking that the libretto for AKHNATEN is one of the areas the work scores over his previous work?   There are fully-formed characters, who act from credible motivation, and who have human failings that make them interesting to us.  The other important thing is the role of dance...  we don't get enough dance in modern music-theatre, and it lifts the work onto a fresh dimension



Quite a considerable one, I'd say?  Bringing the Aten to life in the sound-texture as a solo trumpet is a big move-forward, at last music is being used as a plot device...  Akhnaten orders his people to worship a god who can't be seen, touched or pictured... all qualities of musical sound, of course.  (This is most clearly heard in the Akhnaten/Tye/Nefertiti "trio", which is in fact a Quartet, as the trumpet plays the fourth role of Aten).  The orchestration of AKHNATEN is also made more interesting by the absence of upper strings.  I do wonder what he intended with that mad solo trombone at "Live the Horus!", though??  (This strikes me as a horrible misjudgement, but perhaps I haven't understood it correctly?  The text of "Live The Horus!" is itself obscurantist in nature...)

The brass fanfares have a clear relationship to those in that other "Egyptian" opera, THE MAGIC FLUTE - Richardson's "Singing Archaeology" book on the opera is worthwhile reading for more on this.  I think the parallels Richardson draws with GOTTERDAMERUNG (obviously, because of a plot about the Twilight of the Cult of the Aten...) are very valid...   but in the closing music of the opera it's not GOTTERDAMERUNG but the end of VALKYRIE I hear?  Which, if you think about it, suggests not a Twilight, but an enforced hibernation for Akh-En-Aten, "Servant Of The Aten (viz "the Servant Of Wotan"), and a promise of a resurrection later?  The grubby tourists are not "worthy" of Akhnaten, and he must wait until someone who deserves him comes along...

And there's an honest-to-goodness solo aria in the piece  The "Hymn To The Sun".

Gosh! I know almost everyone in that ensemble but I didn't know it existed. I'm sure that would have been a very fine concert.

I hope that someday some critic accuses me of asking him to "deaden his soul."

I'd, kind of, agree with this. It was after Tehillim that we'd hear, in the UK, that Reich was having compositional dry spells. I think he , more than Glass, was looking for a way forward. IMHO he never found that direction. It was a shame for the UK because, at the time, it was Reich, rather than Glass, who was more influential, in the UK musical 'establishment'.  Glass was taken less seriously.   I remember attending Roger Wright' s first 'Open Day' in which Reich (not Glass) was the guest of honour - fast talking, wise-cracking, and not a little defensive. Also,  I remember some MOR (ha-ha) composers like Simon Bainbridge composing in a more chromatic Minimal style than Reich.  Dutch influence, perhaps. 

Personally I think, this relative failure of Reich allowed certain UK musicologists, later, to accept Adams as a true heir. Also, he was in the always favoured UK tradition of conductor/pianist/composer. (thank god, he can 'chew gum and walk at the same time'. phew!). As Richard has mentioned, there was also a Romantic influence. If I can recall, the effects of German neo-romanticism were beginning to be felt, something that certain UK musicologists could truly study and analyse at last. Adams had made it easy for them. All these recognizable references. Sometimes I really wonder about the musical canon, though hopefully this particular story will still evolve.





 

Well yes, it is. But more noticeable to me is the sense of uncertainty, disappointment and confusion in that review. The damning seems like an instinctive defence in the face of being left behind. This I find far more depressing here (and in countless reviwers' agendas in the UK as well) than an outright and spluttering panning.

Bernard Holland: he's no Paul Griffiths

I used to own a copy of Hans Eisler's book 'Rebel In Music'.
It was red in colour.
It has since been reprinted a few times but I could swear the original cover had
an Eisler quote  on the front. It was something like:

'If all you know about is music, you don't know about that either.'

I've never been able to verify that quote, I'd very much like to be able to find it again.

There's an art's magazine here called  'Bomb'.  A few short years ago Steve Reich was interviewed
by one of the Ban On A Can composers at his home over dinner. It was very cosy. They live close to
each other.  Reich , who is now a grandfather, spoke out against Palestinian tactics in Israel without any balanced
view whatsoever.
I wonder what Cornelius Cardew, former Reich colleague and musician   would
have said.
 Y'know, it's OK to get old, but you don't have to get stupid!