Back to Blog
Punk rock opera7/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Lizzie is, naturally, at the center of things. “Lizzie” has four characters, all young women (evil dad, hated step-mom and the whacks are offstage, unseen), with issues they aren’t shy about aggressively bringing to our attention: ![]() ![]() Brown, a Chance Resident Artist for almost two decades, skillfully taps the score’s energy and focuses the emotional boil-overs built into the book for maximum impact. The music is suitably, but not excessively, loud.ĭirector Jocelyn A. Directed emphatically from the keyboard by Robyn Manion, the on-stage ensemble also includes guitar, drums, bass, and - hello diversity - cello. But while a couple of tunes pound home in 7/4 time, there is great musical variety at hand here. This style, epitomized in “Les Misérables,” can reward oversize drama and emotion.Ĭhance proclaims this is a punk-rock opera, and the two-hour show is driven by a 27-song score, with few numbers reaching three minutes long. Paternal abuse and budding feminist consciousness resonate even more now.Ī key to “Lizzie” is that the authors employ storytelling largely through song than spoken dialogue. ![]() Later in the decade, Alan Stevens Hewitt added more music and orchestrations and the piece rounded into a fully realized show, less about history and more about tonal intensity and a range of social fist-clenching themes. In 1990, “Lizzie” began as a mini chamber (of horrors) rock operetta, four songs written by composer Tim Maner and lyrics from Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer. Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks, When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |