This comic/grotesque chamber opera was written in 1993. It is hoped that tenor Kevin West will perform the role of the Hatter. He met Geoffrey Alvarez when he gave the first performance of Mozart/Alvarez 'Bastien and Bastienne' commissioned by English Country Opera in Peckover House, Wisbech at this time.

This comic/grotesque chamber opera was written in 1993. It is hoped that tenor Kevin West will perform the role of the Hatter. He met Geoffrey Alvarez when he gave the first performance of Mozart/Alvarez 'Bastien and Bastienne' commissioned by English Country Opera in Peckover House, Wisbech at this time.

All Reviews

There are 2 reviews for this score

Zappaesque
The freaky, atonal but nevertheless happy sound of the piece reminds me of the orchestral pieces by Frank Zappa. Ever heard something?? But why do you offer this score for free? 9.95$ seems to be a very low price for such a good piece and the hours and hours you must have worked on it. I didn't take the time to analyse the whole thing, but I don't think (like the first reviewer), that it's freely atonal. There are so many little "cells" that are repeated, modified, mirrored (I don't know the exact english word for what I mean), that I would consider it a serial piece. Is it? I'm a fan of serialism, if you can hear it, and in this case you can! Well done!

Peter Schnur

The tonality question

I think I?m right in saying that Arnold Schoenberg was the first composer to write freely atonal music. He decided after a few years that somehow this ?didn?t work? before developing Serialism. How much interest is a freely atonal piece (with or without voices) likely to attract these days?

Some of the most attractive music in this Operetta is faintly tonal rather than atonal. Where the composer dares to write music with just dabs of tonality, we suddenly feel more of an affinity with what he is trying to say. The piece is certainly interesting and exciting rhythmically and once again (as I always seem to say when reviewing here) it would be brilliant to hear a ?live? performance of the score.

There are many sections of this piece that I have enjoyed. It is obviously carefully crafted and well orchestrated, but as I have said already, I really wonder how much success one can have writing in this genre in today?s climate. Many of the composers at Sibelius are writing music with key signatures(!) At least Alvarez is following his own path and writing music that has sincerity.

Unfortunately, the time I listened to the piece, there was a ?midi fault? (or more properly a ?Sibelius fault? which caused the note F to sound continuously in the voice part as a sort of mid-range ?pedal-note? about 2/3rds of the way through. I wonder whether this happens every time or if this is a fault that can be corrected by the composer?

Jonathan FeBland