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Article: Lucky dip into the myth kitty
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- July 3, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The debate about the relevance of opera today, especially
fairy- tale opera, has recently been revived: in the same way as
critics call for the Great Novel of Britain in Decline, so
musicians and music critics have exhorted composers - or perhaps,
strictly speaking, librettists - to confront contemporary issues.
Nixon in China, not Orlando; The Plumber's Gift, not The Mask of
Orpheus.
The composer John Woolrich, when he asked me last year to write
a libretto for him, specified that he wanted a fairy-tale: he sees
the tradition of opera performance as conjoined with the carnival
art of serio ludere (playing seriously), with puppet plays and
street games, with conjuring and tumbling, ...