By Steven Brown for the Texas Classical Review February 17, 2024 As operagoers mingled in the lobby of Houston’s Asia Society Texas Center, two sturdy male voices suddenly rang out. “Come in! Come on in,” they sang, heartily and genially. “Take your seats! There’s excitement in the air.” The voices’ owners, posted near the...
At WNO’s American Opera Initiative, three glimpses into the future
But the highlight of the evening was its centerpiece, “Forever” — quite easily the strangest opera I’ve ever seen. Rather than dig into humanity for material, composer Elizabeth Gartman and librettist Melisa Tien dispose of it altogether, opting instead for a world populated by humanistic petrochemicals and tenacious microorganisms. Thus, “Forever” stages a meet-cute...
Washington National Opera renews commitment to future of American opera
A three-character opera lasting 20 minutes is not a vast canvas, and it turns out that less can be more in a mini-opera. The most successful of the three new works, Forever by Elizabeth Gartman, was also the most frivolous, at least on the surface. Set to a libretto by Melisa Tien, it featured...