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.
Salzman and Desi Working Together Again
Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi are working together again, this time on a production of the Morty Feldman/Sam Beckett Neither—the only opera/music theater work either of them ever wrote. The Center for Contemporary Opera will present a workshop version at The Cell in May with Keira Duffy in the principal role and featuring a mime and videographer from Vienna. The whole production will then move to Vienna where it will be performed at the Wien Modern Festival in November. Productions with full orchestra will follow in Vienna and New York in 2010.
Date Posted // March 16, 2009
In Categories // Events, News, Works and Productions
Western Wind Vocal Ensemble Performs Excerpts from Jukebox in the Tavern of Love
An excerpt from Jukebox in the Tavern of Love was performed by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble on their O Beautiful American Music program (originally created for National Public Radio) in November at the New York Historical Society and they will perform another excerpt or two at their big anniversary celebration on May 16th. Jukebox is a “madrigal comedy” commissioned by the Western Wind on an original text by Valeria Vasilevski about six people trapped in a bar during a huge storm and blackout. The Western Wind has performed it, together with a madrigal comedy of 1607 by Adriano Banchieri about people on a ferryboat going from Venice to Padua, at the Tenri Center in Greenwich Village, and at The Flea in downtown NYC. They plan to bring it back next season in New York and on tour. There will also be a CD and DVD of the work to be released later this year.
Date Posted // February 18, 2009
In Categories // Events, Jukebox in the Tavern of Love, News, Works and Productions
Report on the CCO Colloquium and Salzman’s Radio Interview on WBAI
The Center for Contemporary Opera held a public panel or colloquium event on the subject of The New Music Theater in December at The Cell Theater in Manhattan with Eric Salzman, Thomas Desi and several distinguished colleagues—Rinde Eckert, Steven Osgood, Diane Wondisford and Grethe Barrett Holby. Salzman visited Vienna in mid-January and a similar panel was held at the Kunstlerhaus (Artist House) there with Thomas, the Italian composer Maurizio Squillante and Laura Berman of the artistic staff of the Bregenz Festival. Salzman also did a program on his own music theater work—with special emphasis on The Nude Paper Sermon, The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and Jukebox in the Tavern of Love—at the University two days later.
Also in December, the program Through the Opera Glass, hosted by Marc Laiosa on WBAI-FM, held an extended, three-hour interview with Salzman about his life and work, complete with generous musical excerpts (Salzman spent a couple of crucial periods of his life as music director of WBAI where he founded the legendary Free Music Store).
Date Posted // January 10, 2009
In Categories // Jukebox in the Tavern of Love, News, Radio, The Nude Paper Sermon, The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz, Works and Productions
Colloquium on The New Music Theater
The Center for Contemporary Opera will present a Colloquium on The New Music Theater based on the publication by Oxford University Press of the book with the same title by Thomas Desi and Eric Salzman. This event will feature both authors plus a panel consisting of Rinde Eckert, Steven Osgood, Diane Wondisford and Grethe Holby (also possibly Meremith Monk).
8:00pm at The Cell, 338 W. 23rd St., New York.
Date Posted // December 10, 2008
In Categories // Events, News, The New Music Theater, Writings
Salzman on Through the Opera Glass
Eric Salzman will be featured on “Through the Opera Glass” with host Mark Laiosa on WBAI-FM 99.5 in New York, from 6–9am. You can also listen online.