Little Women
The Composer
The Cast
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GREAT PERFORMANCES
on FanFaire:
Queen's Jubilee Gala
Paganini's Progeny /
Art of Violin
Copland's America with Jonathan Sheffer and the Eos Orchestra
Don Giovanni Unmasked with Dmitri Hvorostovsky
3 Mo' Tenors
Joshua Bell in
West Side Story Suite
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Mark Adamo's adaptation
for Houston Grand Opera
of Louisa May Alcott's
LITTLE
WOMEN
-America's
"sister-act" of all time-
is an American opera
for all time!
Composers and librettists have always mined great works of literature for musical ideas (e.g., how many orchestral/operatic incarnations has Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet seen?). In "Little Women" the young American composer Mark Adamo has struck a gold mine of themes (family, love and friendship above all else, and a stirring of feminist ambition) and characters (the four sisters March, Mother and Father, a maiden Aunt, and beaux-become-spouses) from which he, as composer and librettist creating his very first opera, stitched together a colorful musical quilt of a masterpiece that is as heartwarming as it is entertaining. His music is unmistakably that of a modern composer who has the gift of melody and happily does not hesitate to use it. His score for Little Women is for a chamber opera ensemble of 18 which the young American conductor Patrick Summers conducts to great effect. It is available on CD under the Ondine label.
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