The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies

[jwg]

Last night we went to see the Boston Lyric Opera's production of The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies.

It is a pretty fascinating work and it was really well done. The singers: tenor, baritone, bass/baritone were all very good and had a small orchestra. Our seats were only ab out 8 feet away from the gong which is rung near the end. The instrumentation includes an out-of-tune upright piano, a banjo, and several flexatones. I particularly liked the banjo / fiddle / percussion piece. How many operas have banjos in them.?The set and lighting were very fitting. The venue is the JFK library - chosen probably because of the view of the sea.

It's nice that the BLO is doing a mix of classical operas - the next one is Barber of Seville, and some modern adventurous ones as well.

This one runs until Sunday, the 12th.

Part of another production

Comments

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Was that a rhetorical question, or do you really want to know how many operas have banjos in them? Not that I know the answer off the top of my head or anything. Obviously, Porgy and Bess comes immediately to mind, but I also wonder what else.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Have just been Googling. Not a terrible lot out there, but it seems The Threepenny Opera has a banjo in it. But perhaps we consider that more musical theatre than opera?

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I'd say it is pretty hard to figure where to draw the line between musical theatre and opera.

It was a rhetorical question.

BTW, I saw a soprano trombone at the MFA yesterday and the caption said something like there was no classical music scored for it.