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re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES...

Posted by: Delvino 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14
In reply to: re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES... - AlanScott 05:32 pm EDT 03/16/14

I watched an hour of it, viewable on line, and found the production exquisite, the casting spot on, the libretto wanting and the music insufferably inaccessible. I had no problem with these men singing. Yet the emotional impact of the story - to me decidedly large enough in scale to be operatic - was held hostage to the chilly, melody-free music. Proulx has famously said that she felt the (exquisite) Oscar-winning score by Gustavo Santaolalla was sentimental; moving in the opposite direction created an almost cerebral take that to me undermined the pathos. The film score, ironically is lean, spare, minimalist, hardly John Williams; yet it is infused with feeling. Brown might have written a haunting musical, and I find the idea compelling. "Parade" revealed a composer unaffraid to make people sing in any circumstance. "Brokeback" invites both daring and tradition, a star-crossed lovers tale with a tragic ending, more Puccini than Berg.


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re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES...

Posted by: Delvino 10:03 pm EDT 03/16/14
In reply to: re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES... - Delvino 09:55 pm EDT 03/16/14

Okay, maybe Berg was wrong. Bartok? Glass?


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re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES...

Posted by: AlanScott 01:22 am EDT 03/17/14
In reply to: re: Jason Robert Brown should have adapted BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN instead of BRIDGES... - Delvino 10:03 pm EDT 03/16/14

With my limited musical knowledge, I'd say that Berg is a good comparison. Unquestionably Wuorinen's style generally and in Brokeback Mountain is much closer to Berg than to Bartok or Glass.


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