Now Playing: Elvis Costello
Topic: Elvis Costello
Editorial Reviews Amazon.com
British rock star Elvis Costello's score to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Il Sogno was commissioned by an Italian ballet company, hence the title) is derived from the French impressionists, with touches of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Igor Stravinsky. Recurring saxophone riffs mirror orchestrations by Serge Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel, while eerie ripples of cimbolom (a folkloric hammered dulcimer) are straight out of Bela Bartok. Costello's use of leitmotif tidily depicts characters and subplots; the fairies come across as a jazzy, sexy lot whose intervention in human affairs is selfishly mean-spirited rather than playful. The four human lovers are flummoxed by their own callowness long before they encounter the supernatural. The nobles seem like posturing windbags while the plebian worker/players are ponderously endearing. The LSO and Michael Tilson Thomas exult in the work's textures and climaxes. Even though the milieu is more cinematic than symphonic, this beguiling confection is light-years beyond most pop-classical crossover attempts. --Christina Roden
Posted by BSB, editor
at 8:33 AM EDT
|
Post Comment |
Permalink
Updated: Monday, 13 June 2005 3:13 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 13 June 2005 3:13 PM EDT
