Dammit, sorry, how stupid of me! My mind had got it all overlaid with
'Gawain and the Green Knight', which Birtwhistle certainly set. All this
substratum in my mind, about the problems of singing in masks and/or false
heads, and then I go and think of the wrong head.
Yes, of course, Knussen, a much more comfortable composer all round.
Definitely much more the sort of thing you could take the kids to see.
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 8:54 PM
Subject: Re: outside over there
> [another that got rejected...I'm crossing my fingers]
> I don't think Harrison Birtwistle would ever have set such a libretto,
> his work being *far* more astringent/violent/archetypal etc. The music
> is by the English composer/conductor Oliver Knussen, whose work (he also
> set *Higglety Pigglety Pop*) is much more "culinary" (to use a Brechtian
> term.) Birtwistle's first opera was *Punch and Judy*, which is much less
> easy to consume, not to say nerve-wracking. I believe you are right in
> thinking Sendak did the libretto.
> mj
>
> Joanna Boulter wrote:
>
>> I'm pretty certain that Sendak did the libretto for Harrison
>> Birtwhistle's
>> opera Where the Wild Things Are, and that the sets (of course) were
>> based on
>> the book illustrations.
>>
>> I bought this book for my small children in what must have been 1973,
>> and my
>> mother nicked it, so I had to get another copy for the kids.
>>
>> best joanna
>>
>
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