The DBR's show from 2008 at BAM Next Wave Festival, which I created the video projection design, continues to perform fall seson 2009. Here is a quote from a great review from the last performance at North Caroliana State University.
" A Multi-Media Theatrical Event with Music @ NC State University
by John W. Lambert
....DBR has done the job admirably, producing mostly tonal music that is readily grasped, music that enhances emotion and mood conveyed by the texts, music that admirably incorporates the compositions of the brilliant singer, giving the impression that the score is all of a piece. In this regard, its “international” flavors suggest, to a limited extent, the powerful Orion, of Philip Glass; and in addition there is more than a touch of minimalism in the DBR score, for there is a lot of repetition (and also of fragments of the text…). Finally, the music does not appear at first hearing to be terribly demanding for the performers – there seemed to be lots of unison sections and plenty of perhaps tedious-to-play string passages beneath the more virtuosic solo sections DBR himself realized from time to time.
There can be no question that this is a major work. It is surely – as conductor Foy said at the pre-concert discussion – full of things that one does not, can not take in the first time around, so it is a work that would repay repeated listening. It is hard to guess how well it would work as a stand-alone musical piece, divorced from the projections, the dramatic lighting (by Matthew Richards), and the astonishment and delight DBR himself brings to his stage shows by dint of his infectious enthusiasm; my initial impression is that the music and all the stage business need each other, much as is the case in John Adams’ A Flowering Tree. On the other hand, many of us listen to lots of broadcasts and recordings of the musical sides of stage works and derive great pleasure from them,..... " |