Dog Days

Finally, a good composer. Last Saturday I saw Dog Days by composer David T. Little at Montclair State University in New Jersey. This was part of their series called Peak Performances, concentrating on new opera. How did I get there, living in Manhattan and not owning a car? Answer: the Series provided a bus, leaving from the 42nd St. Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. Impressive! Round trip for just $15 and only 30 minutes.

A very impressive production. For one thing, the performers interacted (at times) with images on an overhead screen. For another, the music was very well written and very well played, this in spite of the composer, David T. Little, advertising himself as a drummer in a Rock Band. Sure, sure! And a degree from Princeton?

I did't hear much related to rock music, mostly tonal music with dissonance and electronic effects added when it seemed appropriate to the text.  Nice contrasts, nice changes of pace. One quibble; absolutely everything was amplified, including the singers. Why? I am suspicious that the composer wrote a score, as good as it was, that drowned out the singers, and so they needed amplification. It made the voices seem to come from somewhere else than their throats - namely from the speakers. It also created an emotional distance between the singers and the audience. Another quibble: the text was for me altogether too earnest and too depressing. The kind of subject matter that attracts grants but not audiences? I mean - a family gradually starving to death and eventually eating the family dog, who just happens to be a human being who thinks he is a dog.

Just in case a reader of this blog has an opera to flog:
Dog Days was produced by Peak Performances http://www.peakperfs.org/ in association with Beth Morrison Projects http://www.bethmorrisonprojects.org/

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