Composer's 1972 work enjoys a compelling revival by Susan Narucki and her kallisti ensemble at the University of California San Diego
Four singers, and one piano, with just four notes — A, B, D and E — for a little over than an hour. Sound exciting? Well it was.
Last week, the piece enjoyed a compelling revival by Susan Narucki and her kallisti ensemble at the University of California San Diego in performances that were surprisingly lush, varied and skillful.Johnson’s music isn’t often heard these days. His work is emblematic of New York in the early 1970s: sophisticated, experimental and often funny, pushing up against all sorts of artistic and social norms.
Johnson’s libretto owes a good deal to the work of writers like Samuel Beckett, whose circuitous writing about writing and narratives about narratives would have a similar effect on Feldman. The subject of the opera is simply that an opera is being performed; the singers tell us what we have heard and what we are about to hear: “There are three choruses in the opera; this is the second one.”
This ceremonious, ritualistic, musical self-awareness was thoroughly disarming in Narucki’s production, helped along by the poise and technical polish of the musicians. Baritone Jonathan Nussman’s rich tone emerged in his aria “In a moment you shall hear a wood block; it is a minute event.” There really are no minute events in this piece, or they all are.
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