Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Silent Night of unrelated music

PBS broadcast of new opera is more of the same.

Silent Night
Silent Night
Video:

SILENT NIGHT Anna Sorensen's "Dona nobis pacem"

I tried to watch Silent Night on PBS on Sunday, December 21. I was drawn in by the promise of one of my favorite stories. The story is the Christmas Eve truce of 1914. German and British troops began singing carols to each other on the front during World War I. It was a beautiful example of humanity temporarily acknowledging that nationalism is ultimately an empty concept.

Silent Night is an opera composed by Kevin Puts and the production was from Minnesota Opera, where the piece was originated in 2011. I wish I could say I enjoyed the PBS broadcast but I did not.

Sponsored
Sponsored

When is someone going to write an opera that sings? I am sick to death of this disjointed style of sing-speak intervallic balderdash. The best thing I can say about it is that it’s tedious.

Most of the music was neither dramatic nor beautiful in Silent Night. Let me say that again. Most of the music — some of the music was nice and only one segment struck me as beautiful.

Silent Night was tedious, tedious, tedious, tedious, nice, tedious, tedious, tedious — you get the point. It needs to be the other way around. For whatever reason, composers of operas don’t want to develop a theme or have any musical cohesion for the story. You are telling a story with music therefor the music needs to be intelligible.

Allow me to attempt to write a sentence in a style that reflects the music of most contemporary operas. Here we go: Jupiter mantra periwinkle phallic gesture have none than that the other and but however can infinitesimal jellybeans.

It makes no sense and has no discernible structure, logic, or meaning.

Music such as Silent Night makes me long for someone to roll a chord and start a recitative. Can I get a leitmotiv, perhaps, or would that not be groundbreaking?

Maybe that’s the problem. Does every new opera need to be groundbreaking? So far the ground most new operas have broken has been enough to bury them.

This dona nobis pacem from Silent Night was one of the “nice” parts. It starts out great and then gets silly. There is no way for any singer to get that high note out cleanly. That note would have had a stunning effect on a violin or even on the piano but it does not sing.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Bob Long played piano for Tina Turner and Ray Charles

And he got the crowd shaking at InZane Brewery
Silent Night
Silent Night
Video:

SILENT NIGHT Anna Sorensen's "Dona nobis pacem"

I tried to watch Silent Night on PBS on Sunday, December 21. I was drawn in by the promise of one of my favorite stories. The story is the Christmas Eve truce of 1914. German and British troops began singing carols to each other on the front during World War I. It was a beautiful example of humanity temporarily acknowledging that nationalism is ultimately an empty concept.

Silent Night is an opera composed by Kevin Puts and the production was from Minnesota Opera, where the piece was originated in 2011. I wish I could say I enjoyed the PBS broadcast but I did not.

Sponsored
Sponsored

When is someone going to write an opera that sings? I am sick to death of this disjointed style of sing-speak intervallic balderdash. The best thing I can say about it is that it’s tedious.

Most of the music was neither dramatic nor beautiful in Silent Night. Let me say that again. Most of the music — some of the music was nice and only one segment struck me as beautiful.

Silent Night was tedious, tedious, tedious, tedious, nice, tedious, tedious, tedious — you get the point. It needs to be the other way around. For whatever reason, composers of operas don’t want to develop a theme or have any musical cohesion for the story. You are telling a story with music therefor the music needs to be intelligible.

Allow me to attempt to write a sentence in a style that reflects the music of most contemporary operas. Here we go: Jupiter mantra periwinkle phallic gesture have none than that the other and but however can infinitesimal jellybeans.

It makes no sense and has no discernible structure, logic, or meaning.

Music such as Silent Night makes me long for someone to roll a chord and start a recitative. Can I get a leitmotiv, perhaps, or would that not be groundbreaking?

Maybe that’s the problem. Does every new opera need to be groundbreaking? So far the ground most new operas have broken has been enough to bury them.

This dona nobis pacem from Silent Night was one of the “nice” parts. It starts out great and then gets silly. There is no way for any singer to get that high note out cleanly. That note would have had a stunning effect on a violin or even on the piano but it does not sing.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mang Tomas, banana ketchup barred in San Diego

What will happen to Filipino Christmas here?
Next Article

How to make a hit Christmas song

Feeling is key, but money helps too
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader