Comments on: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

By: zeno

zeno — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:52:44 +0000

Since the San Francisco Opera and PBS apparently won't be broadcasting “Appomattox” by Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton, it looks like the hoi polloi will have now to trudge out to their local mall multiplex and plop down 9 quid. [I also wonder whether the BBC will be broadcasting the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle and David Harsent's "The Minotaur" next spring, from London's Royal Opera House. I recall that Birtwistle and Zinovieff's "Mask of Orpheus", in 1986 at ENO, was supposed to be broadcast on a delayed basis; but that the plan was aborted due to technical problems.]

By: Elaine Fine

Elaine Fine — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:44:35 +0000

It was odd. Griffey’s perfect English diction wrapping itself around that translation somehow made his character seem false. I too love this piece, but I found the production rather cold. Maybe it was the fact that it was on TV, maybe it was that oddly amplified piano, maybe it was the “in your faceness” of the staging.

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:47:19 +0000

The first act looks great, but the other two worry me. And, like most works I love-love-love (and this is definitely one of those), I know the english translation will pain me to no end. Like the greatest musicals, so much that’s critically beautiful happens in the precise, almost syllable-by-syllable interplay between the original text and music.