![]() ![]() ![]() Sometimes the music is taken from the vernacular: period songs or Protestant anthems.” On the mill floor, it becomes a busy set of gears and whistles against which the voices sing. In private scenes, the orchestra provides a measured heartbeat. Factory scenes turn harsh, as do moments of personal confrontation. Emmeline promotes an old habit of music that three generations of nontonalists have been unable to break: that harmony of the spirit equals musical consonance. Emmeline is in constant though never hectic motion. Dissonance seems to be more a theatrical than a musical tool. The language is tonal, and Picker's particular dialect has a soothing effect. They ride gracefully and take interesting directions. ![]() Picker has a true ear for lyrical run-on musical sentences. The City Opera should put Emmeline in its permanent repertory. An admirable sense of self results in affecting simplicity. It deals with plain people and serious matters, neither overreaching nor understating its agenda. “Tobias Picker's Emmeline at the New York City Opera is of modest scale and manageable ambition. ![]()
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