Ultimately, I feel my instinct was borne out, because people did respond well to the subject matter.įrom what I remember of the movie, it is pretty Wagnerian.Įxactly. It just seemed, for many reasons, ideal for an opera, in terms of the characters and the "size" of their behavior it's very moody. Sort of immedicately and instinctively, I just said: "As a matter of fact, I do," and I thought of Séance again. So they asked if I would be interested in doing something for them, and whether I had any ideas. Then, maybe nine months or a year later, I got a call more or less out of the blue from Opera Santa Barbara, saying that they had heard I was interested in writing an opera someday, and that they were looking to commission a new work because they have this wonderful new theater. I didn't really feel that Séance on a Wet Afternoon was appropriate for musical theater, and I wasn't particularly looking to do a musical theater project anyway, but it obviously lodged in the back of my mind. Initially, someone had pitched the idea to me as a possible musical theater project, a William Morris agent named Peter Franklin. What drew you to do the project in the first place? I was on very unfamiliar ground, and had never done orchestrations on this scale before, so there was a lot to learn-but it really turned out well, and seemed to be very well received. It was a big challenge for me in so many ways it was terra incognita. I was really happy, and extremely relieved. So tell me, are you happy with the way Séance on a Wet Afternoon turned out? He's also the subject of the 2008 book Defying Gravity (Applause Books $24.95) by Norwalk author Carol de Giere. A true musical guru of stage and screen, Ridgefield's Stephen Schwartz, 61-whose credits include the Broadway musicals Pippin, Godspell and Wicked and the Disney films Pocahantas (an Oscar winner for Best Score) and Enchanted-just premiered his first opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon (based on the 1964 British film), in Santa Barbara, Calif., this fall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |