One of America's most important composers has found music for one of the most unlikely stories to have emerged from one of the most lonely exiles of modern memory. When writer Salman Rushdie was individually targetted by a worldwide Islamic jihad, he wrote a fantastical parable to comfort his son, which composer Charles Wuorinen has now brought to the operatic stage, with a libretto by poet James Fenton. Recently I spoke with the composer for usOperaweb.com:
"There is an unfortunate general conception among a lot of people that art is elite. There is an embarrassment about the idea of expressing interest in things of an artistic nature, or things of 'higher value.' People want to get down to the level of the street. I don't want that and [there are others who] don't want that either. Thus it is our duty to expand and assert the value of higher culture in life without apology."
Composer Charles Wuorinen speaks with a patrician elan that belies his zip code of origin. Born June 9, 1938, in New York City, he proclaims, "I'm that rarest of beings -- a genuine New York-raised Manhattanite." But he declines to speculate about how that urban authenticity may have left its stamp on his work.... Read the entire interview
10/29/2004 06:00:57 PM
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