Opera has always been a reflection of the cultural zeitgeist of Western society. Historical events, popular stories, real people—they’ve all inspired musicalizations which allow patrons to connect directly with cultural moments in artistic ways.
But while opera may have stopped being the most popular art form, it never stopped being a relevant one. Hats off to the contemporary composers who continue to devote themselves to breathing life into the art form (because if they don’t, who will?). Opera is an endangered species, much like pandas or stenographers, and it continues to thrive creatively by reflecting the pop culture moments—movies,...
But while opera may have stopped being the most popular art form, it never stopped being a relevant one. Hats off to the contemporary composers who continue to devote themselves to breathing life into the art form (because if they don’t, who will?). Opera is an endangered species, much like pandas or stenographers, and it continues to thrive creatively by reflecting the pop culture moments—movies,...
- 1/27/2014
- by Marc Snetiker
- EW.com - PopWatch
What more has Courtney Love possibly got to share with us, and how will Steve McQueen fare at the Oscars? These are just a few of the topics that will set tongues wagging in the new year
Pop
Courtney Love's memoir
The question is not so much "what will be in Courtney Love's book?" as "what could possibly be in Courtney Love's book that she hasn't already spoken/ranted/raved about?" Still, her self-titled autobiography has been described as "too crazy not to be true" and should provide her definitive take on her time with Hole and her doomed relationship with Kurt Cobain. It will also, hopefully, spill previously unspilled beans on her relationships with Billy Corgan and Steve Coogan. Oh, and according to an interview she did with Rolling Stone, it was inspired by Russell Brand's My Booky Wook. The mind boggles. Tj
Everything to...
Pop
Courtney Love's memoir
The question is not so much "what will be in Courtney Love's book?" as "what could possibly be in Courtney Love's book that she hasn't already spoken/ranted/raved about?" Still, her self-titled autobiography has been described as "too crazy not to be true" and should provide her definitive take on her time with Hole and her doomed relationship with Kurt Cobain. It will also, hopefully, spill previously unspilled beans on her relationships with Billy Corgan and Steve Coogan. Oh, and according to an interview she did with Rolling Stone, it was inspired by Russell Brand's My Booky Wook. The mind boggles. Tj
Everything to...
- 1/1/2014
- by Mark Lawson, Andrew Dickson, Lyn Gardner, Oliver Wainwright, Andrew Clements, Jonathan Jones, Tim Jonze, Henry Barnes, Stuart Heritage, Judith Mackrell
- The Guardian - Film News
Pluralism is the defining feature of music at the end of the 20th century – from the minimalist film music of Michael Nyman to the lush sounds of Toru Takemitsu to the spectralist works that explored sound itself, writes Gillian Moore
"We live in a time not of mainstream but of many streams," John Cage mused as he surveyed the musical scene shortly before his death in 1992, "or even, if you insist upon a river of time, then we have come to the delta, maybe even beyond a delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies … "
The 12th and final episode of The Rest Is Noise festival is called New World Order. It may still be too early to have the historical distance to tell what really mattered in classical music at the end of the 20th century. What is clear, however, is that in the closing decades...
"We live in a time not of mainstream but of many streams," John Cage mused as he surveyed the musical scene shortly before his death in 1992, "or even, if you insist upon a river of time, then we have come to the delta, maybe even beyond a delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies … "
The 12th and final episode of The Rest Is Noise festival is called New World Order. It may still be too early to have the historical distance to tell what really mattered in classical music at the end of the 20th century. What is clear, however, is that in the closing decades...
- 12/4/2013
- by Gillian Moore
- The Guardian - Film News
New York City Opera's 2013-14 season and Bam's 2013 Next Wave Festival opened Sept. 17 with the U.S. premiere of Anna Nicole, an opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas based on the flamboyant life and tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith. This highly anticipated co-production includes seven performances at the Bam Howard Gilman Opera House, on September 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, and 28 at 730pm. Click below to go behind the scenes with the opera's cast and creative team...
- 9/19/2013
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
New York – Tosca, Aida, Carmen, Manon, Violetta, Anna Nicole. It’s not hard to spot the odd name out in that bunch. But in charting the rapacious rise and shocking demise of the gold-digging Playboy Playmate-turned-reality TV star, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas make a legitimate case for Anna Nicole Smith as a tragic operatic heroine for the 21st century. Laced with outrageous profanity and lowbrow humor, Anna Nicole is also a work of unexpected poignancy. It makes us all complicit in a popular entertainment culture that feeds on celebrity dysfunction while losing sight
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- 9/18/2013
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New York City Opera began last season with Powder Her Face, a sour British romp about the rise and downfall of a sexually voracious tabloid aristocrat who performs a scene of oral sex set to raunchily suggestive music. The company began the current season with Anna Nicole, a sour British romp about the rise and downfall of a sexually voracious American tabloid queen who performs a scene of oral sex set to raunchily suggestive music. This second import, by librettist Richard Thomas and composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, opens with a sizzling, brassy chord and a blast of desperate hilarity. Soon we get our first glimpse of our heroine, the self-created goddess of camera-friendly excess, Anna Nicole Smith. But her liveliness can’t last. The moment of truth comes a little later, when her octogenarian-billionaire husband collapses, then rouses himself just long enough to utter a final protest: “Not dead yet.” City...
- 9/18/2013
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
New York City Opera's 2013-14 season and Bam's 2013 Next Wave Festival opened Sept. 17 with the U.S. premiere of Anna Nicole, an opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas based on the flamboyant life and tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith. This highly anticipated co-production includes seven performances at the Bam Howard Gilman Opera House, on September 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, and 28 at 730pm. Individual tickets are on sale at Bam.org or through Bam Ticket Services at 718.636.4100. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below...
- 9/18/2013
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
New York -- The blazing comet of Anna Nicole Smith's short but flamboyant life will burn again next fall when the opera about the tragic celebrity makes its U.S. premiere. First seen at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2011, Anna Nicole will be presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and New York City Opera. The work was composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage, with a libretto by Richard Thomas. It will be directed by Richard Jones, who also staged the original production. Story: 'Private Practice' Alum to Play Anna Nicole Smith in Lifetime Pic From 'Smash' Duo Following
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- 3/19/2013
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Versatile musician was equally at home writing jazz and film scores as music for the concert hall
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, one of Britain's most versatile and talented composers and performers, has died peacefully on Christmas Eve in his adopted home city of New York, aged 76.
Over the course of a distinguished career he has been equally at home writing music for the concert hall and performing cabaret at the Algonquin Hotel; as enthusiastic about Cole Porter as Pierre Boulez. His publisher, Gill Graham of the Music Sales Group, said: "He was, I think, the last of his kind. He wrote 32-bar jazz standards, the most complex serial music, and everything in between."
To a broad audience he is perhaps best known as a prolific writer of scores for film and television, including for Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral; his film...
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, one of Britain's most versatile and talented composers and performers, has died peacefully on Christmas Eve in his adopted home city of New York, aged 76.
Over the course of a distinguished career he has been equally at home writing music for the concert hall and performing cabaret at the Algonquin Hotel; as enthusiastic about Cole Porter as Pierre Boulez. His publisher, Gill Graham of the Music Sales Group, said: "He was, I think, the last of his kind. He wrote 32-bar jazz standards, the most complex serial music, and everything in between."
To a broad audience he is perhaps best known as a prolific writer of scores for film and television, including for Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral; his film...
- 12/26/2012
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
Guy Garvey, Isaac Julien, Martha Wainwright and other artists give their top tips for unleashing your inner genius
Guy Garvey, musician
• For fear of making us sound like the Waltons, my band [Elbow] are a huge source of inspiration for me. They're my peers, my family; when they come up with something impressive, it inspires me to come up with something equally impressive.
• Spending time in your own head is important. When I was a boy, I had to go to church every Sunday; the priest had an incomprehensible Irish accent, so I'd tune out for the whole hour, just spending time in my own thoughts. I still do that now; I'm often scribbling down fragments that later act like trigger-points for lyrics.
• A blank canvas can be very intimidating, so set yourself limitations. Mine are often set for me by the music the band has come up with. With The Birds,...
Guy Garvey, musician
• For fear of making us sound like the Waltons, my band [Elbow] are a huge source of inspiration for me. They're my peers, my family; when they come up with something impressive, it inspires me to come up with something equally impressive.
• Spending time in your own head is important. When I was a boy, I had to go to church every Sunday; the priest had an incomprehensible Irish accent, so I'd tune out for the whole hour, just spending time in my own thoughts. I still do that now; I'm often scribbling down fragments that later act like trigger-points for lyrics.
• A blank canvas can be very intimidating, so set yourself limitations. Mine are often set for me by the music the band has come up with. With The Birds,...
- 1/3/2012
- by Anthony Neilson, Ian Rickson, Martin Parr, Laura Barnett
- The Guardian - Film News
When Eva-Maria Westbroek put on giant fake breasts to sing the title role of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera Anna Nicole in February, she made a startling discovery. "I'd never had so many friends in my life," the Dutch soprano laughs. "People really reacted. Everyone wanted to be hugged by me... I almost wondered what I was going to do without them."...
- 9/8/2011
- The Independent - Film
'I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did'
Sidney Lumet's 1974 film version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was something of a landmark in crime cinema. The star-studded cast (Bacall, Bergman, Connery, Finney, Gielgud, Redgrave . . .) and lavish production values provided both the template for later movie adaptations of Christie's work and paved the way for the successful trend of high-end television crime series. Richard Rodney Bennett, who had been writing for the screen since he was 18, and who was a technically brilliant classical composer with a deep knowledge of 1930s popular music, was an ideal choice to write the score.
"Stephen Sondheim recommended me," recalls Bennett. "And as soon as I saw the rushes I told Sidney that no one in their right mind was going to be scared out their wits by Agatha Christie.
Sidney Lumet's 1974 film version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was something of a landmark in crime cinema. The star-studded cast (Bacall, Bergman, Connery, Finney, Gielgud, Redgrave . . .) and lavish production values provided both the template for later movie adaptations of Christie's work and paved the way for the successful trend of high-end television crime series. Richard Rodney Bennett, who had been writing for the screen since he was 18, and who was a technically brilliant classical composer with a deep knowledge of 1930s popular music, was an ideal choice to write the score.
"Stephen Sondheim recommended me," recalls Bennett. "And as soon as I saw the rushes I told Sidney that no one in their right mind was going to be scared out their wits by Agatha Christie.
- 7/22/2011
- by Nicholas Wroe
- The Guardian - Film News
Oh, dear. Never overlook where you are living. Apparently the excellent Chicago Opera Vanguard has lost out on a sponsor because of the frequent use of a commonly used word beginning with "F." Really? And in the splendid opera Greek by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's composer-in-residence Mark-Anthony Turnage. What could be more respectable than that, you may well ask? Eric Reda's energy and vision deserves better. I am very sorry indeed that I will not be able to see this production. I had it in my calendar for last week and then they changed the dates. It is maddening - but I hope that all my readers living in Chicago will show up. Now that Chicago Opera Theater's season is over this will be the last great thing of the Spring/Summer. It should not...
- 6/1/2009
- by Brian Dickie
- Huffington Post
The creators of hit musical Jerry Springer: The Opera have started work on a new opera based on the life of tragic star Anna Nicole Smith.
The production is being written by Richard Thomas and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and will be staged at London's Royal Opera House, accompanied by a 90-piece orchestra.
The story will focus on Smith's life story and end with her tragic death from a drugs overdose in 2007.
And Thomas insists the late glamour model is the perfect subject as she is a modern pop culture icon.
He says, "It's an incredible story. It's very operatic and sad. She was quite a smart lady with the tragic flaw that she could not seem to get through life without a vat of prescription drugs.
"For me, (the story) ends when she does. It's an American story. I love American culture. Especially for the opera, the stories seem to work on a grander more epic scale."
Jerry Springer: The Opera, based on Springer's TV talk show, ran in London from 2003 to 2005. The musical made its Broadway debut earlier this year with Harvey Keitel in the title role.
The production is being written by Richard Thomas and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and will be staged at London's Royal Opera House, accompanied by a 90-piece orchestra.
The story will focus on Smith's life story and end with her tragic death from a drugs overdose in 2007.
And Thomas insists the late glamour model is the perfect subject as she is a modern pop culture icon.
He says, "It's an incredible story. It's very operatic and sad. She was quite a smart lady with the tragic flaw that she could not seem to get through life without a vat of prescription drugs.
"For me, (the story) ends when she does. It's an American story. I love American culture. Especially for the opera, the stories seem to work on a grander more epic scale."
Jerry Springer: The Opera, based on Springer's TV talk show, ran in London from 2003 to 2005. The musical made its Broadway debut earlier this year with Harvey Keitel in the title role.
- 4/4/2008
- WENN
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