Composer Missy Mazzoli has a gift for musical details that set the scene of a place while not disturbing the basic flow and musical language of a work, and Proving Up (the term means something like "measuring up") is an excellent example. The work was co-commissioned by the Omaha Opera, and Mazzoli offers nervous transformations of hoedown fiddling and marches that evoke the opera's 19th century homestead setting. Librettist Royce Vavrek, unusually, gets equal billing with Mazzoli, but a bit of listening will illustrate why ...
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Composer Missy Mazzoli has a gift for musical details that set the scene of a place while not disturbing the basic flow and musical language of a work, and Proving Up (the term means something like "measuring up") is an excellent example. The work was co-commissioned by the Omaha Opera, and Mazzoli offers nervous transformations of hoedown fiddling and marches that evoke the opera's 19th century homestead setting. Librettist Royce Vavrek, unusually, gets equal billing with Mazzoli, but a bit of listening will illustrate why. The text is all clearly intelligible, and it is integrated with the music closely and rigorously. It's all in service of a somewhat surreal tale in which this farm family is gradually ensnarled in forces beyond its control; a not-entirely-convincing supernatural figure appears, but the general atmosphere, tense and tight, draws the listener in, and Mazzoli's musical lines don't waste a note. The sound is live from Omaha Opera's live 2018 production, and PentaTone delivers an...
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Add this copy of Proving Up to cart. $24.87, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by PentaTone Classics.
Add this copy of Proving Up to cart. $26.05, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Pentatone.
