| INSIDE JERSEY: BREAKING BIG I was selected as one of twenty-one upcoming artists from New Jersey CLICK TO READ MORE CLICK TO READ ABOUT ...And Sometimes They Come Back Bloom Calabi Yau Crash Darkling David and Jonathan Ear Department Concert Everywhere Feathers Fade Greenland Y2K I Would Prefer Not To Meetings Nervous People Restless Legs The Scarlet Ibis SuperSoft "Twinkie" Two/Her THE SCARLET IBIS Critic’s Pick, David Allen, The New York Times Critic’s Pick, Seth Colter Walls, Time Out New York Best of the Fests, Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News The New York Times, David Allen: The composer Stefan Weisman and the librettist David Cote have created a haunting, honest and occasionally horrifying tale of familial bullying and disability for the centerpiece of this year’s Prototype Festival... The tools that contemporary composers, conductors and directors are using to expand the spectacle of music can sometimes seem like unnecessary embellishments...So the great achievement of “The Scarlet Ibis” — an outstanding new chamber opera...is not only that it’s a moving, intense and dignified creation, but also that it adds puppetry to opera’s basic elements in a completely organic way... The power of the victim and the special qualities of the “other” root the opera’s interrogation of what it means to be “normal.” “I’m gonna make you normal, just like me,” sings Hai-Ting Chinn in the role of Brother, a bullying brat who claims naming rights over his sibling and hurls abuse. But unlike Mr. Hurst’s story, in which Doodle is pathetic, here Doodle fights back. “I won’t be normal no more,” he insists, just before his death. Their dynamics are painful but deeply rewarding to watch. Mr. Weisman’s emotive score, played with wonder by nine members of the American Modern Ensemble and conducted by Steven Osgood, seems occasionally as period as Andreea Mincic’s costumes. Its generous tonal lyricism develops in layers: hymns and folk songs for the household; a square, petulant simplicity for Brother’s naïve savagery; an enigmatic chromaticism for Doodle and the pathos of time... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE The Wall Street Journal, Heidi Waleson The Scarlet Ibis…is a narrative, 100-minute chamber opera for five singers and nine players, yet its subject is subtly subversive, and its production groundbreaking. Based on a 1960 story by James Hurst, “The Scarlet Ibis” is about two young brothers in rural North Carolina early in the 20th century...The relationship between the two is sensitively drawn...The siblings’ contrasting music—Doodle’s dreamily chromatic and Brother’s rhythmically insistent—drives the score, as does Mr. Cote’s pointed libretto... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Opera News, Steven Jude Tietjen Cote’s libretto delves into the layers of Hurst’s prose and brings to the surface themes of identity, personal expression and Otherness only hinted at in the story... Weisman’s score amplifies the brothers’ differences by assigning them distinct musical identities. Brother is a pants role, in the tradition of Cherubino and Octavian. Like his operatic predecessors, Brother occupies a liminal space in life and is pulled from naiveté to awareness. His music is energetic and active. He never pauses for introspection in the form of an aria and interrupts solemn and reflective moments with jokes and insults... Doodle is written for a countertenor, which magnifies the character’s “Otherness.” Weisman sets Doodle apart from Brother and the rest of the characters with long, plaintive melodies, as in the dreamy “Peacock Aria,” in which Weisman and Cote give voice to Doodle’s musical and poetic inner life... The final scene is Weisman and Cote’s most beautiful departure from Hurst’s story. The brothers race home in a storm. Doodle is left behind and runs after Brother. For the first time, Doodle’s music pulses and moves. He soars into the air and then comes crashing down lifeless, like the scarlet ibis. The haunting final tableau is Brother gazing at Doodle’s body. The look of recognition on Chinn’s face made for a chilling, silent finale. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Opera News, Mark Thomas Ketterson [An] ineffably moving chamber opera... There wasn't a dry eye in the house... Weisman's lovely chamber score for nine players is evocative and illustrative without being fully narrative in the operatic sense: it emerges more subtly as an emotional subfloor beneath the text. Weisman clearly knows how to write for voice, and there is some particularly intriguing writing for percussion. The overall effect is of a staged tone poem... There is something peculiarly affecting in this music that remains in the mind long after the final notes have sounded... The work's great strength lies in its ability to inspire musings on the latent profundity of mundane human experience--and the transcendent beauty to be found in those who are different. New York Magazine, Justin Davidson Opera in its most inflated form is an immense vehicle for wispy plots; at Prototype, a festival of musical miniatures, it’s an intimate vessel for grand themes...Astonishing things happen at close range. A child-size puppet becomes expressive...Smallness is a powerful tool in the hands of those who wield it well... The Scarlet Ibis, a deft tragedy by composer Stefan Weisman and librettist David Cote. Based on a 1960 story by James Hurst that’s rich in martyr symbolism and lethal brotherly love, the opera chronicles another doomed relationship, this time between children: poor little Doodle and his nameless big brother…Doodle does die, of course, felled not by disease but by his brother’s affection, pride, and fear, which is what makes it the stuff of opera...Weisman and Cote have made something special... Writing an extended operatic role for a small, disabled child might seem like asking for trouble. The Scarlet Ibis solved the problem by cleaving Doodle in two. A remarkably lively puppet played his scrawny body, and the burly countertenor Eric S. Brenner supplied his high, sweet voice. What might have been an awkward compromise became a touching tour de force... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE The New Yorker, Russell Platt Commissions from major opera houses continue to allow some of America’s most formidable lyric composers (Mark Adamo, Jake Heggie, Carlisle Floyd, and others) to use the stage as a melting pot, synthesizing the tradition of Puccini, Britten, and Berg with hardy American influences—the Broadway stage, the enduring post-minimalist wave. But today’s indie-opera movement, which is still establishing its own economic base, narrows and sharpens stylistic parameters. This trend is exemplified in the Prototype festival... The flagship production, The Scarlet Ibis (with a quasi-minimalist score by Stefan Weisman), is designed for audiences young and old; it views the subject of physical disability through the lens of a Southern writer’s anguished childhood. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Condemned to Music, David Patrick Stearns This new opera with words by David Cote and music by Stefan Weisman created a quiet sensation at the Prototype Festival... The opera has a wonderfully clear narrative...Along the way are any number of affecting musical set pieces, such as a church hymn that Doodle sings asking God to be healed (greeted with mocking tones by his brother). Then there’s his rhapsodic interaction with a tropical bird (a scarlet ibis)... The piece’s simplicity of means – and its impact – were not unlike those of Juan Darien, the semi-legendary 1988 studio-theater show that put director Julie Taymor and composer Elliott Goldenthal on the map. Similarly, The Scarlet Ibis score abounds in lyricism but can’t be said to have traditional tunes…No Wagnerian artifice shoehorns (or elongates) the story into a larger symphonic scheme. With a sound envelop resembling Appalachian Spring in its original chamber-orchestra version, the music subtly creates an effective netherworld between major and minor when the family first attempts to explain this highly unusual second child to Brother. Rhythms are simple but give an appropriate emotional pulse of every scene. When the score momentarily quotes the Falcon music of Die Frau ohne Schatten, one realizes how much The Scarlet Ibis runs counter to the usual steep peaks and valleys associated with traditional opera…the music achieves its own kind of foreground operatic status if only through its dramatic precision. Most distinctive is the way the score gives the characters the time to think onstage. In contrast to more traditional opera where an emotional explosion is followed by a quick exit, important events have contemplation time that makes music and story even more insinuating. The Scarlet Ibis earns its pathos so honestly that, for the singers, this may have been a remarkably low-pressure gig. No need to cover the weak spots or “sell” the scene any any traditional sense... The Scarlet Ibis had to have been developed (by HERE and Beth Morrison Projects, in association with American Opera Projects) with great care. So easily, one could look at the piece the way Brother looks at Doodle, claiming that it should be more normal, like what’s seen at the Met. Where’s the outsized heroism? Where’s Aida and Siegfried in all of this? Luckily The Scarlet Ibis had the courage to be itself. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Musical America, Daniel Stephen Johnson The Scarlet Ibis hits the ground running. Twice near the briskly paced opening of the new opera...we see two contrasting scenes unfolding simultaneously: at the very beginning, a boy's toy-soldier reenactment of the gruesome battle of Gettysburg plays out during his younger brother's difficult delivery; just a few moments later, while their mother sings the frail newborn to sleep, their resigned father prepares for the worst by hammering together an infant-sized coffin. With these scenes, Weisman and Cote set the tone for the piece, which negotiates between two worlds: the suffering feminine versus the violent masculine; the mother's tenderness versus the father's toil…Weisman's music drives home the divide between the fragile boy and the big, frightening world around him by scoring much of the work in a gruff language of stiff rhythms and static harmonies, reserving for Doodle the opera's loveliest and most lyrical melodies... The opera is undeniably effective, with both the set pieces written into the work and the director's coups de theatre generating enough emotional excitement to sustain the drama...Weisman excels in the lyrical mode. When Doodle, for instance, tells his brother a story about a magical peacock, the opera really takes flight... At the death of Doodle, the orchestra reprises his elegy for the ibis, and by the time his brother arrives to find the tiny puppet limp and abandoned on the stage, the audience is guaranteed to be in tears. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE New York Observer, James Jordan Glorious...meaty and challenging, worth the trek to such untraditional opera-going destinations...The creative team for this piece deserves kudos for recognizing so ideal an operatic subject, rich in emotion that can best be expressed in music. The troubling theme of the meaning of “normal” also makes this work particularly suitable to teens...The musical language is conservatively “American,” with a hint of Aaron Copland in its wistful open harmonies. A particularly subtle touch was the high-lying distribution of voices: three women, a countertenor and a baritone, suggesting the female-centric world of a young child... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Broadway World, Stephen Raskauskas With any new work, I never fail to ask myself: Did it have an emotional impact? Was it good enough that I would see it again? Does it have enough appeal to revive again? The answers: yes, yes, and yes. Initially, I was apprehensive about The Scarlet Ibis because of its source material...I am glad composer Stefan Weisman and librettist David Cote proved me wrong. The Scarlet Ibis is a poignant piece that deals sensitively with difficult issues and emotions. To me, in fact, the narrative works better as an opera than as a short story. Weisman's score is traditional enough at its core that it even borrows a snatch from Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten. Traditional doesn't mean banal or predictable, however. Cote's libretto worked very well, with nothing sounding too out of place or unnatural for the world they created—extraordinary considering how little dialogue is in the original short story. The ease with which the score and the music and libretto worked together allowed me to forget—for the most part—that I was watching an opera, and allowed me to focus on the characters. And that's all I really want—good storytelling... As Doodle often dreams, some of the most wistful and lyrical melodies are scored for him, including a haunting reverie for the dead ibis, and a dream song about a boy with a special pet peacock... PROTOTYPE has recommended the show for anyone 12 and over, though the audience at Friday night's performance was decidedly adult. Still, it is accessible enough that even younger audiences could be entertained and enlightened by it. In fact, while I do not mean to imply that The Scarlet Ibis is only suitable for young people—it would be excellent even for groups of elementary and middle school children to see. Aside from the fact that any exposure to the arts young people can have is a good thing, one of the chief merits of THE SCARLET IBIS is its potential to open up dialogues about difference, and that's something people of all ages need more of. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE New York Classical Review, George Grella This year's Prototype Festival...is off to a typically strong start with last week's world premiere of Stefan Weisman’s powerful and affecting opera, The Scarlet Ibis. Weisman’s music is melodic throughout, and he takes care to produce a careful distinction between Brother’s choppy lines and Doodle’s long, lyrical ones...Weisman’s writing has a foundation built in part on Copland’s populist style, but is much more convincingly romantic, wringing genuine pathos out of moments that Copland would have used for sentimentality. Cote’s libretto is clear, singable, and shapes the drama with fine pace and proportions... The duration is one hour and forty minutes, roughly divided into two acts without intermission. The pace is relaxed but never static, and the music expresses the drama so well, and is such a pleasure to hear, that one never feels time passing. Instead, it is an accumulation of beautiful, dramatic details and emotional experiences that gather weight. One does not want the experience to end even as the final moments clearly draw closer... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
BuzzNews.net, William and
Margaret Swain Chicago
Classical Review, Lawrence A. Johnson Chicagoland Musical Theatre,
Quinn Rigg
Picture This Post, Amy Munice Stage and Cinema, Lawrence
Bommer Vocal Arts Chicago Stefan Weisman
and librettist David Cote have distilled
the brother’s narration into thirteen
concise, powerful scenes exploring a range of
family emotion... Weisman’s often dissonant
but firmly tonal score alternates sudden
outbursts of emotion — violence and occasional
joy — with stretches of more static music
serving as backdrop for various characters. But
orchestral touches enlivened the dialogue:
an undulating viola under the mother’s
lullaby; an atmospheric choir of oboe,
vibraphone and strings presiding over the
naming ceremony; and double reeds evoking
the swamp where the Brother brings Doodle,
determined to teach him to walk.
CLICK HERE TO READ MOREBoston Musical Intelligencer, Basil Considine
The score varies from comedy to tragedy in an
accessible idiom... Weisman’s score includes
several delightful songs, such as the lullaby
“Rest, my dear one, rest” ... and “Heal me, sweet
savior”, which flowers from a solo ... into a
lyrical and lovely quartet.
CLICK
HERE TO READ MOREEverything That Rises, Paul Elie The Southern Gothic is alive and well and living in the opera houses of New York—or more precisely, in the city's multipurpose performance spaces... Spending time with a younger brother (called “Doodle”) who has a disability in the legs, the character called Brother resolves to teach him to walk – and compares him to Frankenstein and Lazarus in a single breath. Well, seeing the puppet who is Doodle gradually rise and walk, singing all the while, really was akin to seeing the raising of Lazarus. It was that startling. Hawthorne – or Flannery O’Connor – couldn’t have done it better. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Stage Buddy, Navida Stein Sometimes you are fortunate to have an extraordinary experience in the theater, when all the elements come together gloriously. I received such a blessing at The Scarlet Ibis, a new American opera that is part of the 2015 Prototype Festival and co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE. A magnificent collaboration between composer, librettist, director, designers, singers, musicians and puppeteers...Composer Stefan Weisman and librettist David Cote have crafted an achingly beautiful opera examining the complex relationship between two brothers... Mr. Weisman’s music is profoundly connected to the emotional life of the characters, including the melodic simplicity of a hymn and the harmonic and rhythmic density of a storm at the climax of the story. The final haunting melody, pulsating with the beat of a grief stricken heart, brought tears to my eyes. Every artist involved with this production should be congratulated for their stunning work…Opera lovers owe a big debt of gratitude to Beth Morrison Projects and HERE for supporting and nurturing such vital new work. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Classical.Music.NYC, Eric Sweeney Worlds collide this week as Stefan Weisman and David Cote's opera The Scarlet Ibis premieres at HERE as part of the Prototype Festival. The opera uses not only living, breathing singers, but also stunningly crafted puppets... It has absolutely everything a great chamber opera demands: beautiful music, beautiful words, and a compact cast...Cote’s words are full of life and color as he brings the tragic life of this boy to the stage. There are multiple arias that paint intricate pictures, including the Mother’s first aria (sung tenderly by Abigail Fischer) while she holds her almost lifeless newborn. Or the haunting aria sung by Doodle, the young cripple, when he tells his brother about the fantastic lands he travels to in his dreams. Stefan Weisman’s score (conducted by new opera guru Steven Osgood) compliments the fine libretto and also takes moments to really come forward and shine. The arias are accompanied by rich orchestration and the vocal line is never overpowered by the accompaniment. The score remains tonal and flows and pours out naturally. Feast of Music, Steven Pisano Weisman's score is rich and suggestive: at times bright and hopeful, at other times menacing and dark... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Hi! Drama, Eva Heinemann The Scarlet Ibis...was ambitiously turned into an opera by Stefan Weisman with a libretto by David Cote who adheres to the story but has some added touches to give it more depth and symbolism...I had never heard of this story so I went home and Googled it and read it in 10 minutes. This made me appreciate even more the scope of what Stefan Weisman and David Cote had achieved. Make sure you bring Kleenex when you see this, and you really should. San Francisco Classical Voice, Zoe Madonna The Scarlet Ibis...brought something all too often missing on the operatic stage: subtlety. Grandiose gesticulations and histrionics would have been entirely out of place in this up-close production, staged in HERE’s intimate theater. Schleppy Nabuccos, Elizabeth Frayer The Scarlet Ibis...was a refreshing break from the classical opera scene...I was surprised to find myself choked up at points as I watched the puppet. Not only was that a testament to the puppeteers, but to Eric S. Brenner (who occasionally manipulated the puppet alone). Just listening to Brenner was mesmerizing, and his countertenor voice led to the Southern Gothic otherworldly vibe…The Scarlet Ibis and its highly creative stagecraft left a lasting impression on me. Schleppy Nabuccos, Shawn Milnes In The Scarlet Ibis, composer Stefan Weisman and librettist David Cote have created an audial and visual southern gothic tale of surprising effectiveness... The entire production in the small HERE theatre shows how much can be done with just light, creativity and ingenuity on stage. Parterre Box, John Yohalem Operamission's "A Countertenor Cabaret" starred no fewer than 14 of these once-rare songbirds...Mr. Weisman’s chamber opera, The Scarlet Ibis, had a much-admired debut at the Prototype festival of new opera this month. Eric Brenner sang “I Have Wings” from Ibis, a melody of such magic and originality, performed with such imaginative sympathy, that I gnashed my teeth to have missed the recent run. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE DARKLING Darkling CD
Video Feature in Encore Magazine, January 2012.
Powiat Gnieznienski (Poland), Agnieszka Rzempa: This unusual, innovative piece was the main attraction of "Jewish Culture Day," sponsored by the city of Gniezno [Poland]...The unique use of language, film and music were highly effective, and the performance received great applause as well as a standing ovation from the audience... The theatrical power of Darkling underscores how quickly catastrophic events can destroy that which took many years to build. Darkling also movingly revives the memory of the Holocaust tragedy and reminds us of the dangers that we face in the present where terrorism is a constant threat. Night After Night, Steve Smith: Stefan Weisman's dark, elusive score is...shot through with an old-world melancholy...The composer took full advantage of his operatic principals — soprano Jody Scheinbaum, mezzo Hai-Ting Chinn, tenor Jon Garrison and bass-baritone Mark Uhlemann — each of whom was afforded an opportunity to stand out...Garrison's impassioned solo number, performed in beard and gown, summoned thoughts of Halévy's tortured Elezar....Productions like this remind you that all too much light is cast upon the Met and City Opera — and even San Francisco and Houston — to define what new opera is, or might be. Let Darkling serve as a reminder that opera can also be what and where it is found. This is a profound, provocative piece of musical theater — one that I hope will occasion a great many opera lovers to stray from habitual paths. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Time Out New York (Starred Review), Lisa Quintela: Thomas Hardy's mournful poem "The Darkling Thrush"...is colorfully set to music for the final song and grafted onto measures in the rest of Stefan Weisman's expressionistic score...Speech mingles with live singing, subtitles and projected film to create a sense of chaos, helplessness and anomie... Opera snobs and novices alike won't regret wondering downtown for more daring fare. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
New York Resident Magazine, Alan Lockwood: Acute in its musical reach and dead smart as theater, American Opera Projects’ Darkling…courses with charged generosity…Taut arias recall Schoenberg’s monodramas and Bartok’s hard-hitting Bluebeard’s Castle... Stefan Weisman’s score, played by the Flux Quartet, orbits near Shostakovich’s gripping string quartet cycle then gleans wafting minimalism. Show Business Weekly, Carrie Jones: American Opera Projects presents Darkling, a rich opera about a wispy, charged story of immigrant woes and the power of memory....Eerie and effective...the entire 13-member cast evokes a generation of lost souls... The songs themselves are sung with conviction.
The New York Sun, Gary Shapiro: Vacancy, displacent, and separation are major themes of Ms. Rabinowitz's poem, which has been set to music by Stefan Weisman in Darkling...In one particularly haunting part...the upbeat Passover song "Dayenu" ("Enough") [is transformed] into a dark refrain of Nazi atrocity. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Click to read about Darkling as featured in the Jewish Telegraph Examiner.com, Stephen Smoliar: Last night in the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Wild Rumpus presented the second of three concerts planned to feature the winners of the group’s 2014 Commissioning Project... Both of these premieres left deep impressions. Both composers were clearly not content with the pursuit of surface-level features and opted for “in depth” treatment of their chosen “subject matter.” ... Intimacy was significant in the second world premiere, Stefan Weisman’s “Bloom.” ... This was clearly an ambitious undertaking for both composer and soprano. "TWINKIE" The Wendy Williams Show, Wendy Williams: Very unique...You're not going to hear opera like this anywhere else...Fabulous!" CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO EVERYWHERE FEATHERS Textura (blog) (CD review): Though many pieces utilize [Jody Redhage's] voice, cello, and electronics exclusively, an immensely rich sound is achieved through the use of multi-tracking. One such example is "Everywhere Feathers," an arrangement of an aria Stefan Weisman originally wrote for his opera Darkling but that ended up excluded from the final production. The haunting piece is somewhat stark in terms of arrangement, with multi-tracking of Redhage's cello kept to a minimum (all the better to appreciate its woodsy tone) and her voice heard in its most naked and affecting form. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE The Super-Sargasso Sea (blog) (CD review): Jody Redhage is an indie classical cellist/vocalist...of minutiae and memory features intricately layered cello, vocals and electronics, combined engagingly into eight tracks which demonstrate remarkable creative range and maturity...Personally, I'm fixated on "Everywhere Feathers," penned by Stefan Weisman. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Ear to Mind (CD review), Alex Segura: Composer Stefan Weisman’s “Everywhere Feathers” inadvertently becomes the coda to the entire album, as the aria proves to be a manifestation of some of the strongest aspects of the previous tracks. Evoking visions of the sea and a sense of impending loneliness, “Everywhere Feathers” brings the song cycle to a pensive and sad close... Fluid, emotive, but not needlessly so, and full of the kind of details and nuance that bear repeat listens, Jody Redhage has created an album that is memorable and highly accessible. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE A Fool in the Forest (blog) (CD review): Stefan Weisman's "Everywhere Feathers" shifts attention back to Jody Redhage as a singer: a contemplation of life and the life to come sung over a rising Bach-evoking chordal progression. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE I WOULD PREFER NOT TO Sequenza21, Jay Batzner (CD review): Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To," influenced by "Bartelby the Scrivener," is trance-inducing... Mellissa Hughes restricts her voice for a perfect blend with the glassy sound world and detached affect present in the piece. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE The Big City, George Grella (CD review): Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To" is especially compelling. I have heard this band play live a few times and still wasn't prepared for the depth and complexity of what they are doing. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Lucid Culture, Andreas Viklund (CD review): Much as there are innumerable great things happening in what's become known as "indie classical," there's also an annoyingly precious substratum in the scene that rears its self-absorbed little head from time to time. Newspeak's new album Sweet Light Crude is the antidote to that: you could call this punk classical...Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To"--inspired by Melville's Bartelby the Scrivener, master of tactful disobedience--builds from austerity to another trip-hop vamp...Mellissa Hughes' deadpan, operatically-tinged vocals overhead. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE New Music Box, Brian Sacawa (CD review): Lest Newspeak seem like a one-trick pony, the group also lends its considerable flexibility to tracks that explore a more electronica-type feel. Stefan Weisman's trancey, hypnotic, downtempo, "I Would Prefer Not To," shows that Newspeak is not just all about rocking out... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Arcane Candy (CD review): Newspeak strikes oil with Sweet Light Crude, a dark, chocolately album that could easily keep a whole nation full of chamber rock lovers well lubricated for a whole year - or at least until the Earth's mantle is sucked dry... This short but sweet spout spews forth six spurts of liquid (solid) gold from six different composers... Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To" tacks a semi-lyrical, screeching ballad of mysterious understatement onto a tale of disobedience and protest. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE New York Times, Zachary Woolfe (review of live performance): Organized by the new-music sextet Eighth Blackbird, the Tune-In Music Festival at the Park Avenue Armory takes as its starting point Stravinsky's provocative statement that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all." On Thursday the group, joined by the ensembles Red Fish Blue Fish and Newspeak, tried to disprove the formulation with works ranging from Stefan Weisman's eerie Bartelby fantasy, "I Would Prefer Not to" to Frederic Rzewski's "Coming Together." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Music vs. Theater, Brian M Rosen (review of live performance): Newspeak [is] a chamber ensemble committed to exploring the boundary of rock and classical music. Integrating an electric guitar and drum kit with more traditional chamber instruments, in this performance the ensemble seemed to serve primarily as a backup band for vocalist Melissa Hughes... Composer Stefan Weisman manages to subvert this tendency in his ode to Melville's passive aggressive scrivener, Bartelby. Repeating the insistent phrase "I would prefer not to" on repeated pitches, Hughes barely emerges from behind the ensemble's brooding haze of sound, evoking this cypher of a character. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Phillyist, Sydney de Lapeyrouse (review of live performance): Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To" turns Bartelby the Scrivener's catch phrase into an anti-war protest, with each repetition of the phrase becoming more pleading, more insistent. The light vocals of Sarah Chalfy brought a wonderful child-like pathos to the song. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Lucid Culture, Andreas Viklund (review of live performance): Newspeak were celebrating the release of their potent new album Sweet Light Crude, an equally diverse mix of politically-charged music by an A-list of rising composers... Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To" contrasted plaintively, a subtle tribute to civil disobedience, cello and violin mixing with singer Mellissa Hughes' vocalese. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Seen and Heard International, Bruce Hodges (review of live performance): Stefan Weisman's fascinating "I Would Prefer Not To" draws on Herman Melville's Bartelby, the Scrivener...The talented octet, anchored by the cool voice of Melissa Hughes, offered their own pleasures. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE TWO/HER Choreography by Deborah Lohse for the New Chamber Ballet and ad Hoc Ballet The New York Times, Roslyn Sulcas: Deborah Lohse’s new Two, which opened the program, offered...meditative calm. A duet for Emily SoRelle Adams and Emery LeCrone to a melancholy, melodic score by Stefan Weisman, Two...suggests Ms. Lohse’s gifts for creating theatrical atmosphere. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE New York, Rebecca Milzoff: Pay particular attention to an abstract new work by Deborah Lohse, set to haunting music by Stefan Weisman. [Critics' Pick] Village Voice, Deborah Jowitt: Much of the pleasure of NCB’s recent performances came from pianist Melody Fader and violinist Erik Carlson playing music by Luciano Berio, Stefan Weisman, Joseph Haydn, and Miro Magloire...I appreciated Deborah Lohse’s Two. Not only do both Carlson and Fader, fine musicians, get to play Stefan Weisman’s commissioned score; the choreography demands that Emily SoRelle Adams and Emery LeCrone focus intently on each other and the import of their actions... Lohse and the performers...make it seem both touching and believable. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Oberon's Grove, Philip Gardner: Two choreographer Deborah Lohse reports creating the movement before the commissioned score by Stefan Weisman was applied. The result is a beautiful and thought-provoking duet for two women. Stefan's score as played by Owen Dalby (violin) and Melody Fader (piano) is melodic with a feeling of wistfulness or regret underlining the full-blown lyricism... The work is full of moving, memorable images and the combination of the music, which Owen and Melody played with a nice sense of rapture, and the luminous dancing of Emily SoRelle Adams and Emery LeCrone made this a piece I would like to see again - several times. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Dancing Perfectly Free, Evan Namerow: Deborah Lohse’s admirable ad hoc Ballet goes against the grain in HER, a full-length premiere at the Joyce SoHo that addresses female intimacy, desire, aggression, and the continuously redefined relationship between two women...To Stefan Weisman’s delicate music for piano and violin, they dance in unison, distorting balletic lines to display marvelously twisted shapes. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Dance Europe, Tim Marin: Choreographer Deborah Lohse opened with Two, a duet for Emily SoRelle Adams and Emery LeCrone. Stefan Weisman composed a work expressly for this piece (Owen Dalby: violin, Melody Fader: piano)...Lohse created some nice images: It gave me sad visions of Alzheimer's patients, only glancingly aware of the people in their lives. FADE Click here to listen to interview with Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" programme Bloomberg News, Warwick Thompson:
Opera, Peter Reed:
SUPERSOFT San Diego Arts, Kenneth Herman: Stefan Weisman's 2007 "SuperSoft," a time-suspended, ethereal cello solo, seemed to channel Olivier Messaien's great cello and piano duo from his "Quartet for the End of Time," written in the early months of World War II, only Weisman substituted the gentle, hypnotic malleting of bells and tuned metal pipes for Messiaen's slow chordal repetitions on the piano...I admired Franklin Cox's well-paced solo in "SuperSoft" and...[Percussionist Morris] Palter's sensitive additions ensured that no one could reasonably dismiss him as a mere drummer. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE RESTLESS LEGS New York Times (Year End
Retrospective), Allan Kozinn:
New York Times (Preview), Anne Midgette: Bang on a Can’s annual [People's Commissioning Fund] concert can be counted on to generate electricity and excitement...the three hot young composers [are] Lukas Ligeti, Joshua Penman and Stefan Weisman... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE EAR DEPARTMENT CONCERT Time Out New York, Molly Sheridan: The one-night-only crush of the concert calendar renders the discovery of intriguing new composers an often frustratingly hit-and-miss occupation. Michael Gordon…has done more than his own share of such exploration, and he will showcase three not-for-much-longer emerging composers you should hear—Clarice Assad, Missy Mazzoli and Stefan Weisman—as part of the hall’s exciting Ear Department series. If those names don’t ring any bells just yet, they will soon…Each brings a respectable pedigree and commission rap sheet to the Merkin stage. But more important, each delivers a sound that sticks in the ear—Assad with her Brazilian-accented turns of phrase, Mazzoli with her smart electronic-processing touches and Weisman with his striking vocal lines. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE MEETINGS Mark Greenfest (of the New Music Connoisseur): This piece, an interlocking vocalese among the antagonistic forces of a baritone, bass, and soprano, is set in counterpoint, in chordal progressions. It’s decisively post-minimalist, with an engaging yet driving piano line. The dialogue flows back and forth on top of the vocalese-like texture. The aria, in which the soprano chants “Files, files, files,” is strikingly funny. Weisman’s music, replete with contemporary elements has structural integrity and is actively engaged in a rhythmic and harmonic balancing act (akin to Reich). The sound has a sculptural, dancing, quality to it, as if it were shaped on a musical potter’s wheel. It’s powerful material. CRASH ComposerUSA, Keith Paulson-Thorp: All of the pieces are works I would be interested in hearing again, or even performing. The program left little doubt of the stylistic retrenchment of post-modern music; this was music that was overtly geared as much to the average audience as to the scrutiny of fellow composers. There was a noteworthy preponderance of lyrical writing, and also a penchant for special effects, an element that seemed particularly appropriate in Stefan Weisman’s “Crash,” a tribute to George Crumb (who was born the day of the great stock market crash of 1929). DAVID AND JONATHAN The Westsider, Bill Zakariasen: The text of David and Jonathan, adapted from the Old Testament by Meg Smith, is provocative...and so its Weisman’s beautiful score. It’s initially surprising that the composer resists the temptation to illustrate the violent aspect of the story (e.g. Saul’s attempt to murder David, the fatal battle of Gilboa) in sound, and instead the whole 25-minute cantata is a model of notable refinement, even during the most famous passage in Samuel II ("Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of a woman") there is no breast-beating. Weisman obviously views the events as mainly a love story, not an epic. The score is consistently engrossing, pleasingly tonal with dissonance attractively placed at crucial points (the adventurous choral writing is particularly ear-catching), and well worth hearing again. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE Click to read about "David and Jonathan" in NEW YORK MAGAZINE and TIME OUT NEW YORK CALABI YAU (AKA WHAT THE FUCK IS STRING THEORY) CurtainUp, Les Gutman: Rarely does a week go by anymore, or so it seems, that I am not prompted to marvel at the number of plays being produced with scientific themes. This week, we add "Calabi-Yau" to the list...The show also incorporates some very nice and effective organ music (Stephen Black) and vocals (Hai-Ting Chinn) composed by Stefan Weisman. GREENLAND Y2K This Month ON STAGE: To ring in the new millennium at the North Pole is the ambitious goal of an intrepid explorer (Susanna Speier as the Explornographer), but her determination is outflanked by a pesky Y2K Bug (Ian McCulloch)...Stefan Weisman's epic-sounding music conveys the Explornographer's ironic heroism. NERVOUS PEOPLE Newsday, Gregg Wager: The [Bang on a Can] festival opened with a marathon of 23 pieces by various composers...The festival also included three world premieres, all strong works with their own sense of style...Stefan Weisman's tonal "Nervous People," for string quartet and trumpet, proceeded as a study in pianissimo, going through roughly seven sections where ostinatos dominate over slowly moving melody lines... ...AND SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK Woodstock Times, Cat Ballou: Weisman's instinct to communicate an emotional gestalt through a shifting perspective is a seer's gift... It's a tone poem that fosters anguished beautiful reflection. Woodstock Times, Howard Vogel: Weisman's one-movement piece presents clear orchestral colors. He builds dissonance with purposeful orchestration and a slow, insistent melodic line that emerges and recedes from the orchestral texture, now in the strings,later in the trombone. The piece seems to me to be about music. Daily Freeman, Kitty Montgomery: Weisman taps a universal in the piece that extends beyond technical craft and projected personal emotion... The work strikes me as if the composer has sensed something beyond himself... Ulster County Freeman, Marianne D. Darrow: Perhaps this piece should carry an auditory warning label. |