paul griffiths
What Next?
opera in one act conducted by James Levine, directed by Doug Fitch ‘In What Next?—which has a mysteriously floating text by the Welsh music critic Paul Griffiths—six stunned characters search for an author after a traffic accident but don't find one. Are they dead? Probably. A couple who were on the way to a wedding can't quite remember who they are. The groom is either Harry or Larry. His bride is a performer who cannot stop her coloratura. His mother's a nuisance. His father, Zen, is an aging hippy/spiritualist. There is an astronomer, Stella, whom Zen fancies, and a boy of 12. They want to go on. But where to? How? Just as they find themselves, they slip away. Munich première: Prinzregententheater, 20 Nov 2007 conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky, directed by Christopher Alden ‘What Next? must be seen to be appreciated fully. On Friday night the opera had its New York stage premiere at the Miller Theater, a production directed by Christopher Alden, with Jeffrey Milarsky conducting a terrific cast and the excellent 38-piece Axiom ensemble. In this imaginative staging and gripping performance What Next? emerges as a theatrically dynamic and, finally, quite poignant music drama.’ (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times) ‘Not only is What Next?—by the evidence of Christopher Alden’s light-footed production, and the performance of the assembled cast and of the Juilliard School’s superb Axiom ensemble—actually funny, but it offers some of Mr. Carter’s loveliest and most gracious music. Comparisons to the opera buffas of Mozart would not be inappropriate.’ (Russell Platt, New York Observer)
music by Elliott Carter
material available on hire from Boosey & Hawkes
première: Berlin (Staatsoper Unter den Linden), 16 September 1999
conducted by Daniel Barenboim, directed by Nicholas Brieger
cast: Simone Nold (Rose), Lynne Dawson (Mama), Hilary Summers (Stella), William Joyner (Zen), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harry or Larry)
recording: ECM 1817 (Amsterdam, 2000)
U.S. stage première: Tanglewood, 27 July 2006
Jamie Van Eyck, Kiera Duffy, Christin-Marie Hill and Chad Sloan
cast: Kiera Duffy (Rose), Jamie Van Eyck (Mama), Christin-Marie Hill (Stella), Lawrence Jones (Zen), Chad Sloan (Harry or Larry), Rebecca Danning (Kid)
‘The work has everything: wordplay in the libretto that is reflected in the score, and an increasingly eerie intensity that crests in the final scene, when the characters appear to have worked out their circumstances.’ (Allan Kozinn, New York Times)
‘Carter's music makes no concessions to immediate graspability—each character exists (or almost exists) in his or her own sound world of timbres, melodic shapes, harmonic intervals and rhythms, none of them easy. But everything miraculously fits together. Movement is quicksilver, the brain must work very fast to seize the ineffable.’ (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times)
conducted by Ulf Schirmer, directed by Hermann Schmidt-Rahmer, dramaturgy by Patricius Mayer
cast: Anna Borchers (Rose), Vera Semieniuk (Mama), Sonja Leutwyler (Stella), Lucas Vanzelli (Zen), Andreas Burkhart (Harry or Larry), Bastian Sistemich (Kid)
New York stage première: Miller Theatre, 7 December 2007
Susan Narucki, Amanda Squitieri and Matthew Garrett
Amanda Squitieri and Jonathan Makepeace
cast: Amanda Squitieri (Rose), Susan Narucki (Mama), Katherine Rohrer (Stella), Matthew Garrett (Zen), Morgan Smith (Harry or Larry), Jonathan Makepeace (Kid)