Opera of the Week tonight – The Time of Our Singing by Kris Defoort
OperaOpera of the Week tonight – The Time of Our Singing by Kris Defoort
The Plot: during Marian Anderson’s historic concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, a white man and a black woman fall in love. During the turbulent half-century that follows, they try to protect their three musically gifted children from prejudices they themselves have suffered.
Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer Kris Defoort’s new opera – courtesy of OperaVision. – is a fascinating symbiosis between jazz and classical music deeply rooted in the now. Inspired by Richard Powers’ great American novel, The Time of Our Singing tells the story of a mixed-race family against the backdrop of racial segregation in the USA. In the world premiere at La Monnaie/ De Munt, Ted Hoffman’s production lets official history and intimate stories collide to explore issues of identity, race and art.
Available from 19.30 CET, 18.30 London and 13.30 NY on Friday 24th September
I would rather see an opera about a white bond trader from Goldman Sachs who’s happily married to a beautiful white woman with 2 adorable kids, and who is happy, well-adjusted and volunteers for good causes. The tunes would be happier and uplifting.
Yes. Stories without conflict are always so much more interesting.
/eyeroll
What have color to do whit gift of singing nor anything else way not a person by his or hers did gift or what he is able to fo good for humenity
I fell asleep. Ok, I was muti-tasking on my computer, and the live stream just became background music after a while. It was opera with a lower case “o”.
Sorry, but: in the little bit I heard — I wasn’t able to take very much — too much of it sounded like a European composer’s idea of what American music sounds like; or, possibly, American music written in the 1960s.
I was reminded of a performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” that my orchestra did with our German music director and a German pianist: relentless and hyperactive, and very fast. It was like watching an old silent movie where everybody moves too fast.
It was a very interesting “seen through the lens of” interpretation. I wonder if European musicians are similarly bemused when Americans play music from their countries…