Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Wuorinen: Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Following his death in 2020 American composer Charles Wuorinen (b. 1938) left us at least 270 compositions, among them two operas: Brokeback Mountain (2014), after the same short story by Anne Proulx that inspired the 2004 movie by that name, and the fanciful, fairytale-like Haroun and the Sea of Stories, based on the book by Salman Rushdie. Haroun was premiered, also in 2004, by the New York City Opera, but had to wait until 2019 for its world premiere recording by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Chorus, Gil Rose conducting. On the surface of it, Haroun seems like a children's opera, pure and simple, but underneath all the lighthearted highjinks there is a parable about censorship- something Rushdie knew about all too well from personal experience as a writer.

Of the BMOP Sound recording, Fanfare magazine's reviewer Andrew Desiderio wrote, "The music's rich palette does justice to the magic of Rushdie's story, and meshes with a libretto [by James Fenton] filled with ingenious wordplay and tongue-in-cheek allusions that Lewis Carroll would have been proud of. It's a joy to hear the playful side of Wuorinen... The performers are not only impeccable in diction and musicality, they sound like they're having an absolute blast embodying the opera's over-the-top characters and haunted poignancy. The BMOP romps along with them... a wonderful recording of a delightful opera." (Fanfare, Sept/Oct, 2021 issue). The recording was kindly donated for broadcast by my colleague, WWUH classics deejay Larry Bilansky.