Famous or Infamous

Ah! the vagaries of being famous! Or winning contests! or getting published! How do these things happen? Some composers, of course, get there because they deserve it, their music is brilliant, worthy of constant performance. Many of these contests, publishers, etc, seem to award the winners, however, on some unknown factor. I think it is wearing a blindfold and picking out random pieces from a huge pile.

An American Tragedy

Over at Sequenza 21 they mentioned the new opera "An American Tragedy" by composer Tobias Picker. Well, it got a review in the New York Times today (considering it was done at the Met, I would certainly hope so!) Read the review here. The review praises his control of the opera genre:

"Though "An American Tragedy" is essentially a conventional work and whole stretches of Mr. Picker's score would not be out of place in a Broadway theater, the opera is accomplished, dramatically effective and thoroughly professional. It's hard to imagine a more compelling cast. Admirers of the baritone Nathan Gunn who have been waiting for him to have a major success at the Met will cheer his portrayal of the protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, the uneducated, ambitious son of street-corner evangelists in the Midwest who yearns to join the upper crust. The production by the director Francesca Zambello could not be more gripping."