New Releasings
Labor Records in collaboration with Naxos is releasing a series of recordings of my work covering more than half a century! The most recent release is "Jukebox in the Tavern of Love" paired with a new work by Meredith Monk. "The Nude Paper Sermon" and "Wiretap" is a double album containing no fewer than five works; see below for details. "Civilization & its Discontents" is a words-and-music collaboration with Michael Sahl. More information, reviews and ordering (physical or digital editions) is available below or by going to Labor Records.
Report on the Bargemusic Performance
The performances of Jukebox in the Tavern of Love in July at Bargemusic were a big success. Both performances were sold out and were well noticed in the press and online. A CD and DVD of the Western Wind performance of this work will be available shortly. Jukebox was commissioned from librettist/director Valeria Vasilevski and Salzman as a companion piece to a 1605 madrigal comedy by Andriano Banchieri and the two works are performed together as a double bill.
Date Posted // August 02, 2009
In Categories // Jukebox in the Tavern of Love, News, Works and Productions
News for The New Music Theater
The ezine NewMusicBox (Frank Oteri, editor) is running an excerpt from the Oxford book The New Music Theater and an interview with Eric Salzman. A different excerpt will appear in the next issue of the Kurt Weill Newsletter. Oxford has also submitted the book to the Kurt Weill Foundation which gives an annual award to the best book on the subject of music theater.
A related article written by Salzman will appear in the next issue of the Yale Theater Review. It’s entitled Speaking in Tongues, or Why Should Eclectic Be a Bad Word? It will be illustrated by a lot of his work, past and present, and should be out by the fall.
Date Posted // June 07, 2009
In Categories // Music Theater, News, The New Music Theater, Writings
Bar La Barca at Bargemusic
On Wednesday, July 8th and Friday, July 10th at 8:00pm, Bar La Barca, a unique double bill of “madrigal comedies” written 400 years apart will be performed by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble at Brooklyn’s Bargemusic at Fulton Ferry Landing. Read the full press release (PDF).
Date Posted // June 02, 2009
In Categories // Events, Music Theater, News
Recent and Upcoming Music Theater and Birding Articles
An article/review on Marie Galante by Jacques Deval and Kurt Weill and its recent New York premiere at the Opera Francais de New York is in the current issue of the Kurt Weill Newsletter (Vol.26, no.2, Fall 2008). An excerpt from The New Music Theater will be published in a forthcoming issue of the newsletter.
A piece on eclecticism in new music and music theater—inspired by Zadie Smith’s recent article Speaking in Tongues in the NY Review of Books—will appear in the fall issue of Theater, published by the Yale School of Drama.
An essay on the rare appearance (and almost unknown calls) of Yellow Rails on his East Quogue marsh was published in the March/April issue of Birding Magazine.
Date Posted // April 11, 2009
In Categories // Birding, Music Theater, News
Performance of Salzman’s Music for La Bonne Ame de Setchouan
A new suite taken from Eric Salzman’s music for La Bonne Ame de Setchouan—a French-language production of the Bertolt Brecht “Good Person of Sezchuan” at Quebec’s Theatre du Trident—will be performed on May 16th at the Southampton Cultural Center by mezzo Laila Salins and accordionist William Schimmel.
Date Posted // April 04, 2009
In Categories // Events, La Bonne Ame de Setchouan, News, Works and Productions