Sunday, March 10, 2019

Marnie--I made 20 minutes

So the offset arpeggios create some interesting textures and as much as I found the intersection of motor rhythm and minimalism of interest--I hear Dumbarton Oaks a lot--the music fades to back or underscores its all story.  No songs, text forced into the musical line, unintelligible text in the faster sections--and mostly in the slow sections too but you can hear some but then you also hear the unfortunate accents on 2nd syllables; Moth-ER, Mar-NIE, etc.  Text repetition helps some.
Its beautifully done of course this is the MET-- but for the content of the music. The scenes have shape but the music neither helps nor delineates it. Since you can't understand the words its up to the underscoring to create some clarity. It does, but nothing in the music feels necessary or motivated. It meanders.

In the opera transatlantic the composer put the motor rhythms into everything including the vocal lines --this failed spectacularly and you would think that composers would learn the lesson. On the other hand the disconnect between the accompaniment and the vocal lines persists here.
And why a countertenor?

I also stand by my former comments.

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