I Love NY

There are a lot of things you won't know about New York unless you live here, as I have for the past 6 months. For me as a composer, the most amazing discovery has been the number of really good concerts, plays, dance programs, you name it going on here every night. And most of it dirt cheap or free. Scary!
Thursday night I heard a terrific concert by the Bryant Park Quartet www.bryantparkquartet.com at the Austrian Forum. Price: please make a $5 donation.

The first half included a quartet by Györgi Kurtag - 15 short and interesting movements. The second half was the Op. 59 No.1 Beethoven Quartet. Heaven itself, sublime, overwhelming. So you can imagine my consternation when my wife, Dulce, the perfect tabula rasa audience, commented "pretty." Ludwig would have been spinning in his crypt. I'm pretty sure he intended many things - but not "pretty." More grist for my rant No. 384 that this old music doesn't work anymore, at least not the way the composer intended.

Another reason I love NY. I'm looking for a Director for The Pocket Madama Butterfly http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/u/9/TtgI3Qu5P_k. A search on the internet produced a long list of names, of which I e-mailed 6 rather well-known and experienced NY stage directors, not really expecting a reply. To my pleasant surprise, four of them actually e-mailed me back and offered help! I'll mention Nathanial Merchant as just one of these princes of the NY theater world. Thank you, Nate.

http://nathanielmerchant.com/

In Toronto the same sort of message solicited nothing but a cold shoulder. I remember a note from the Canadian Opera Company http://coc.ca/Home.aspxdismissing what I had offered as "not an opera" (there was a non-singing actor involved) and therefore not worthy of consideration. 

Maybe I'm exaggerating a tad. Toronto's Factory Theater http://www.factorytheatre.ca/, while saying my work wasn't in their mandate, did recommend a very useful book. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to send out works for theater or music theater. Check out Dramatists Sourcebook published by Theatre Communications Group in (you guessed it!) New York. 

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dramatists+sourcebook&tag=msncahydra-20&index=aps&hvadid=56783740&ref=pd_sl_27at0t614p_e

This book lists the method of submitting material to just about every theater in America. In Deember I sent out 56 packages with a letter of inquiry, a 250 word synopsis, a 10 page dialogue sample, and a recording of I Confess, I Have Lived, my Pablo Neruda pocket opera. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/a/u/1/hkTWoVOqDu4

We'll see. It's NY. Anything is possible!