The Opera is an ensemble piece, and it thematizes the individual vs. the collective in music making right away, but before we have really gotten to know any character as an individual, which makes the thematization less effective. This didn\u2019t quite work. We are introduced to most of the characters fairly late in the second act, where they give short monologues about who they are, their experiences and connections to the music, etc. This was effective when it happened, but the whole opera would benefit from beginning with some sense of the individual characters. There is a difficulty in adapting historical material: lives unfold in a way that isn\u2019t necessarily dramatically satisfying. Jubilee is also attempting, I think, to let the music speak for itself, not to give us in depth biographical information on the singers, a performance history of the group, nor to adapt their lives into a tightly dramatic work. Jubilee instead aims to illuminate the nature of the spiritual genre anew for the opera stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I was very fortunate to have a friend who had opening night tickets to a world premiere of an opera. I didn\u2019t ask him what the opera was, and didn\u2019t remember the answer, so imagine my surprise when I looked … Continue reading