I'm late to this thread, and very glad that this piece is doing well for all the reasons stated. I do wish the opera were better:
The hour-long Act 1 is flatly expository, 80% of it ultimately inconsequential. If this were a play nobody would have hesitated to cut that extra material before opening. Acts 2 and 3 were infinitely better, with many strongly conceived and dramatically effective scenes.
The many opportunities for diegetic music (such as the chicken chopping, or the barroom music) were left unused.
The orchestration was surprisingly unvaried, and didn't know to get out of the way when the lead character was in his middle and lower registers.
Worst was that for most of two hours the musical texture was simple block chords plus a line on top. That was a bit much.
And to those who say "ordinary listeners don't care about such things," I say that they make a huge difference whether they are noticed consciously or not. |
