Dawn, Doug and Virgil
A nice profile of Dawn Upshaw in the Observer:http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/story/0,,2265712,00.html
The article mentions my Bird opera, which is deep in rehearsal here at Bard College, and all going very well. The other half of the programme is Virgil Thomson's 4 Saints in 3 Acts, which from the bits of rehearsal I've seen is one strange piece - it seems to be trying to out-Satie Satie. The composer himself described it as 'seriously obscure' in this fascinating article on the piece in the NY Times from 1986
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/06/reviews/thomson-saints.html
"Stage directors are thrown by the very idea of it." Thomson says, but at Bard, director Doug Fitch is bringing it all marvellously, zanily and suitably surreally to life.
Posted on 17 March 2008