\u201c[Sky on Swings] was theatrically true and artistically distinguished\u2026Beecher, especially, seemed to be operating with sure instincts\u2026his musical invention is astonishing here\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201ccleverly devised\u2026an alluring one-act opera\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vivien Schweitzer (New York Times)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201chauntingly lovely and deeply personal\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[an] ingenious project\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heidi Waleson (Wall Street Journal)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“the writing is full of exquisite touches. There are brief bursts of sinuous melody, string harmonics that seem to land almost out of earshot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[a] searing oratorio\u2026 a work of striking universality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carl Schoonover (Host, WKCR-89.9 FM NY)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cevoking laughter at times, chilling nostalgia and a sense of timelessnes\u2026[And Then I Remember<\/em>] had a satisfying, complete and paradigm-shifting conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joel Luks (Houston Culture Map)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the string quartet, as in the oratorio, Beecher demonstrates his gift for evoking, through elegant musical understatement, the full range of complicated thoughts and feelings a human life can hold\u2026The concert took place more than two weeks ago. I took no notes, yet its impact lingers on\u2026I\u2019m grateful I was able to take part. This was, truly, music on a human scale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Susan Scheid (Prufrock\u2019s Dilemma)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA searingly introspective study on immigrant children, [Sophia\u2019s Forest<\/em>] was full of vocal lines reflecting psychological depths but also electronic music effects that added greatly to the dreamlike atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat set Beecher\u2019s work apart? His music, Devan said, has \u2018dramatic possibility written \u2028into it. For me, I heard a storyteller in the music. His musical vocabulary had a fresh sound to it I hadn\u2019t heard before.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Dobrin (Philadelphia Inquirer) quoting Opera Philadelphia General Director David Devan<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInsightful, incisive, moving and meditative, it struck me as a successful bridge-building project, finding commonality across cultures and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rob Hubbard (Twin Cities Pioneer Press<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026what a wonderful meeting of performer and material he struck upon for the closing viola solo. Roger Tapping\u2019s almost subliminal sound was both extremely quiet and present \u2014 as \u201can old, distant recording,\u201d a note in the score says \u2014 before the piece fades to black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Dobrin (Philadelphia Inquirer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first movement, heated lines and harmonies erupt out of a kaleidoscope of notes; then the clouds break up into discrete, drifting bits of melody, non-traditional harmonies, and slides. A hint of a waltz written by the composer\u2019s Estonian great-uncle smears away like paint dribbling down a wall, an effect that occurs in a more exposed way later on\u2026.Sensitive playing continued through the very appealing finale with its light touches of humor. A sweet melody \u2013 the waltz, I assume \u2013 becomes prominent in the viola. A virtuoso atmosphere of sweeping motion over pizzicato playing from the cello has stayed in my mind. The composer emerged for a well-deserved bow; the Juilliard merited theirs too for a stirring performance of a notable fresh work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jon Sobel (Blogcritics)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSky on Swings wasn\u2019t easy. But it was theatrically true and artistically distinguished. Art on this level may be sobering, but this degree of accomplishment is never depressing\u2026Even when it veered into the abstract, nearly everything felt honest about this story of two women in an Alzheimer\u2019s ward, forging a relationship when there might seem that there\u2019s nothing left to forge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beecher, especially, seemed to be operating with sure instincts. With an 11-piece orchestra plus electronically generated sound, he broke down the orchestra into nearly every conceivable pairing, utilizing them in ways that were anything but obvious\u2026his musical invention is astonishing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result was a triumph for everyone involved\u2026.Beecher, who was the company\u2019s first composer-in-residence\u2026has come up with an eloquent, intricate, edgy score that maps the decline of the characters through music, mixing dissonance and gorgeous melody, jazzy inflections and jarring Sprechstimme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Sasanow (Broadway World<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch have created a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer\u2019s disease. This was opera as real life: In a tour-de-force duo performance, two veteran mezzo-sopranos\u2014Marietta Simpson as Martha, who is far gone in the disease, and Frederica von Stade as Danny, who knows what is happening to her and is in frantic denial\u2014enacted the terror and confusion of not knowing where you are and, even worse, who you are. They were surrounded by the sounds of a murmuring ensemble of four Elders and an 11-member orchestra, led by Geoffrey McDonald, whose unsettled harmonies and repeated intervals poignantly captured the struggles of a mind trying to grasp what\u2019s just out of reach. The 78-minute opera toggles between the distress of losing and the serenity of finding, as the two women, who meet in a care facility, help each other by sinking into a new, shared fantasy of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heidi Waleson (Wall Street Journal<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the moment Sky on Swings <\/i>begins, there\u2019s an electric sensation of how vividly music represents the experience of Alzheimer\u2019s. Though there are stretches of lyrical reflection, including two gorgeous scenes for von Stade and Simpson together, these mostly evoke fading memories. More often, an agitated open-endedness can be heard in this very contemporary sound world. A downward sliding motif ends many phrases, and often fragments of melody are heard in disparate instruments (piano, harp) as though wending their way through the orchestra without ever quite joining it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To their credit, Beecher and Moscovitch do nothing to sugarcoat the awfulness of Alzheimer\u2019s. But they also acknowledge, without sentimentalizing it, that our remaining time here can still be worthwhile\u2026I admired Sky on Swings <\/i>enormously, and I think it\u2019s a monumental achievement for Opera Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Fox (Parterre<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the brutal subject matter, the opera stays remarkably agile, avoiding sentimentality even as it embraces frank sentiment. A small chorus makes swift babble in close harmony; the lines for Danny (Ms. von Stade) begin to disintegrate as her illness progresses. There\u2019s lyrical sweep but modernist angles from the ensemble of 11\u2026there is quiet nobility to the duets near the melancholy end for the two leading ladies, who sing with sensitivity and grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zachary Woolfe (New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lembit Beecher\u2019s richly reflective\u00a0Sky on Swings<\/a><\/em>\u00a0offers food for thought in more ways than one. Choosing to focus on the patients rather than on the families is, perhaps, the most powerful aspect of the work; that it provides plum roles for a pair of \u2018senior\u2019 opera singers \u2013 the immensely sympathetic Marietta Simpson and the seemingly ageless Frederica von Stade \u2013 in a repertoire that usually relegates them to \u201cwitches and bitches\u201d comes a close second. Beecher\u2019s score latches on to the way music rattles around in the brain when people are put under mental strain. Fundamentally tonal, it\u2019s flecked with bursts of dissonance like shocks travelling through synaptic nerves and driven by motoric rhythms to match the endless mantras that run around a mind in meltdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clive Paget (Limelight)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to be overlooked\u2026is\u00a0Sophia\u2019s Forest\u2026<\/em>I missed it but caught up with a video that verified much of the rapturous reaction I\u2019d heard from others. A searingly introspective study on immigrant children, the opera was full of vocal lines reflecting psychological depths but also electronic music effects that added greatly to the dreamlike atmosphere. The superb soprano Kiera Duffy was a major plus in the leading role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s Best-of-2017 List<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the fine, understated score\u2014atmospheric and sensitively deployed in terms of pacing the sung and spoken material\u2014emerged from elaborately worked musical sculptural \u201ctree\u201d units that Beecher controlled from a computer, seated with the musicians at the rear of the playing space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Shengold (Opera News<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beecher\u2019s evocative score, a haunted-house amalgam of spindly lyricism and eerie special effects…is full of exquisite touches. There are brief bursts of sinuous melody, string harmonics that seem to land almost out of earshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Conference of the Birds<\/em>\u2026left me admiring the composer\u2019s imagination and extremely excited to hear what he gives us next\u2026the enthusiastic ovation accorded\u00a0[it]\u00a0made clear that this was the work that excited the audience the most. And deservedly so: Inspired by a 12th-century Persian epic poem, it\u2019s a powerful picaresque odyssey for 18 strings, no two of their parts alike. So it felt like a celebration of the gifts of each individual among the SPCO\u2019s string players, as solo voices emerged from unexpected places\u2026Whenever a spirit of conformity informs the music, some rebel spirit explodes from the flock. Its tone is sometimes agitated, other times elegiac, but always fascinating. And it contains the most creative use of sandpaper I\u2019ve encountered in a musical work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rob Hubbard (Twin Cities Pioneer Press<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Conference of the Birds<\/em>, each instrument\u2019s contribution was distinct, but unified. The birds\u2019 takeoff soared, the distance between the earth and sky becoming at once infinite and infinitesimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zoe Madonna (Boston Globe<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n One did not need to know the story of the\u00a0Conference<\/em>\u00a0to admire the proliferation of swooping bird calls in the first movement: the 18 players had individual parts, making for a richness of detail that never became cacophonous. The \u201cbirds\u201d become less numerous as the second movement moves from order to disorder and by the end of the third movement only four players remain, the other musicians having \u201cplayed\u201d sandpaper below them, creating an uncanny rustling static: it was an oddly affecting gesture of self-effacement\u2026[The Conference of the Birds<\/em>] is worthy of re-hearing, from a composer worth following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brian Schutt (The Boston Musical Intelligencer<\/a>) \u2013 January 16, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n This ingenious project\u2026was the most successful of Gotham\u2019s experiments with performing operas in nontraditional spaces\u2026 \u2026Mr. Beecher\u2019s music for the baroque ensemble made artful use of its skills in articulation, layering pizzicatos on tremolos to create an eerie, almost mechanical sound that added to the sense of late-night unease\u2026 \u2026the shadowy gallery, with its Virgin and Child statues and other devotional objects, turned the home front into a place where nightmares hide in corners and war is never in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heidi Waleson (Wall Street Journal)<\/p>\n\n\n\n …cleverly devised\u2026an alluring one-act opera\u2026 \u2026Mr. Beecher\u2019s emotive score featured a period ensemble and electronics, a vivid, eerie sound world that meshed evocatively with the action taking place on the rusty-looking 40-foot-long wooden ramp. Nightmarish fragments and skittering riffs unfolded as Ms. Clayton clawed her way up the ramp and slid down\u2026 \u2026There were moments of arresting tension in the half-hour work, whose recitatives and dramatic arc flowed succinctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vivien Schweitzer (The New York Times)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I Have No Stories to Tell You<\/em> was an inspired choice\u2014a modern take on war\u2014and a compelling counterpoint for the Monterverdi\u2026 \u2026Beecher\u2019s opera tells of a woman returning from war with PTSD and her inability to communicate with her husband. The unwinding of her backstory is devastating\u2026 \u2026the score\u2026was filled with edgy moments\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Sasanow (Broadway World Review)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026a richly written onion-like series of layers\u2026 \u2026I Have No Stories To Tell You proved to be a harrowing account of insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Musically, the work uses hypnotic, repetitive figures, slithering strings, harpsichord and theorbo to underpin its traumatic libretto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Pelkonen, (Superconductor)<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Beecher\u2019s great gifts is his mastery of understatement, evinced here, among other things, in moments of unaccompanied chorus and the oboe\u2019s winding line to achieve exactly the effect the narrative required and no more. Matched by Hannah Moscovitch\u2019s libretto, Beecher\u2019s music limned the rising tension between Sorrel and Daniel with a sure hand. It\u2019s rare for a libretto and music to work this well together to infuse the dailiness of ordinary language with such power. In a production that was elegantly spare, this excellent ensemble of musicians and singers made palpable the half-submerged, indeterminate landscape of human hearts and minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Susan Scheid (Prufrock\u2019s Dilemma)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m eager to hear more operas from Mr. Beecher<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Jorden (New York Observer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026hauntingly lyrical, with its imaginative and well-crafted blending of harmonically complex sounds. The more jocular \u201cNobody Dies Anymore\u201d has an infectious Ravel-like colorful anarchy to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Lowe (Barre\/Montpelier Times Argus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most auspicious sign in an event like this is when the evening\u2019s greatest rewards come in the commissioned world premieres\u2026 \u2026At the center of the first half was \u201cThese Memories May Be True,\u201d Lembit Beecher\u2019s winsome and imaginative four-movement tribute to his Estonian grandmother and the stories she told him of the old country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The writing is sparse but evocative, and Beecher twists a half-digested memory of folk material into something deeply personal. Out of the haze of memory in the first two movements emerges a rhythmic dance whose energy befits the title (\u201cEstonian Grandmother Superhero\u201d), only to give way to a hauntingly lovely finale full of swooping string harmonics and fluttery whispers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the string quartet, as in the oratorio, Beecher demonstrates his gift for evoking, through elegant musical understatement, the full range of complicated thoughts and feelings a human life can hold\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026The first movement incorporates an Estonian song Beecher obtained from an old field recording. The melody bends and spirals as the movement progresses. The second movement limns in music \u201cThe Legend of the Last Ship (and other collective memories).\u201d Musical conversation among members of the quartet hesitates and resumes, the swapping of tales commingled with unease about what has been and what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The music strides into the third movement, indomitable, yet an undercurrent of tenderness breaks through. The last movement is based on a 19th century Estonian folk song, Meil aia\u00e4\u00e4rne t\u00e4navas (Our Childhood Village Lane)<\/em>. Beecher quotes the song in decaying fragments, enticing us to the threshold of nostalgic longing. Plucked strings disturb our reverie, and the song dies away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026The concert took place more than two weeks ago. I took no notes, yet its impact lingers on. The concert\u2019s emotional truth, like that for the \u201clast ship\u201d tales,\u00a0doesn\u2019t depend on factual detail, but rather resides in the community of music created among the composers, performers, and listeners who were there. I\u2019m grateful I was able to take part. This was, truly, music on a human scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Susan Scheid (Prufrock\u2019s Dilemma) \u2013 October 29, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mercado-Wright gave an intriguing performance of two of Lembit Beecher\u2019s \u201cThree Immigrant Songs.\u201d He is a young composer who focuses on vocal writing and dramatic works for groups such as Cantori New York, Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia to name a few. These songs were marvelous, especially in Mercado-Wright\u2019s able hands, making the audience wanting to hear more by the composer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gregory Sullivan Isaacs (Theater Jones)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lembit Beecher\u2019s searing oratorio\u2026employs microscopic historical narratives, the minutiae of human relations, and the cultural contingencies that shape them, to achieve a work of striking universality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carl Schoonover (host at WKCR-89.9 FM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work juxtaposed voice recordings of Beecher\u2019s grandmother with live music, evoking laughter at times, chilling nostalgia and a sense of timelessness\u2026 Left with repeating phrases still ringing in my thoughts \u2014 \u201cAll the dreams were broken,\u201d \u201cMaybe there is no tomorrow,\u201d \u201cWhy did it happen this way\u201d and \u201cThis has been a journey\u201d \u2014 \u2026[And Then I Remember] had a satisfying, complete and paradigm-shifting conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joel Luks (CultureMap Houston)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance turned out\u2026to be Beecher\u2019s ode to his Estonian grandmother Taimi Lepasaar, And Then I Remember<\/em>\u2026 \u2026The dramatic oratorio, as it\uf027s called in the program, is a propulsive, lyrical journey of remembrance by Beecher\u2019s grandmother who lived in Tartu, a village in Estonia on the eve of WW II\u2026 \u2026It\u2019s this old lady\u2019s poetic way of speaking and Beecher\u2019s sympathetic musical seating that carries the work so steadily. Ants is played by the double bass, rich and warm\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026The days of our lives go quickly by, quotes the Kalevipoeg, at full speed the hours pass, mortals find no lasting homeland, wayfarers no peaceful hillock in this earthly life. All the artists involved in the haunting And Then I Remember <\/em>deserve to be remembered, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DL Groover (Dance Source Houston)<\/p>\n\n\n\n At times dramatic, powerful and lyrical, this remarkable tale of survival and rebirth invokes the universal values that bring us together as human beings regardless of age, ethnicity or socio-economic background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicole Paiement (Conductor)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Very touching and warm, with nice musical surprises throughout\u2026[And Then I Remember] had a refreshing directness and lack of fear of emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Bolcom (Composer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lembit Beecher\u2019s 2009 \u201cStories from my Grandmother\u201d\u2026 feature[s] jagged rhythms and instrumental flights of sound that emerged from a background of precisely controlled chaos<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phyllis Rosenblum (Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n\n\n\n …dark, poignant and beautiful…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doug McNair (Chamber Music Today)<\/p>\n\n\n\n a bristling tapestry\u2026one of the night\u2019s most interesting contributions<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bruce Hodges (Seen and Heard International)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c[Sky on Swings] was theatrically true and artistically distinguished\u2026Beecher, especially, seemed to be operating with sure instincts\u2026his musical invention is astonishing here\u201d David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer) \u201ccleverly devised\u2026an alluring one-act opera\u201d Vivien Schweitzer (New York Times) \u201chauntingly lovely and deeply personal\u201d Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle) \u201c[an] ingenious project\u201d Heidi Waleson (Wall Street Journal) “the writing is full of exquisite touches. There are brief bursts of sinuous melody, string harmonics that seem to land almost out of earshot.” Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle) \u201c[a] searing oratorio\u2026 a work of striking universality.\u201d Carl Schoonover (Host, WKCR-89.9 FM NY) \u201cevoking laughter at times, chilling nostalgia and a sense of timelessnes\u2026[And Then I Remember] had a satisfying, complete and paradigm-shifting conclusion.\u201d Joel Luks (Houston Culture Map) \u201cIn the string quartet, as in the oratorio, Beecher demonstrates his gift for evoking, through elegant musical understatement, the full range of complicated thoughts and feelings a human life can hold\u2026The concert took place more than two weeks ago. I took no notes, yet its impact lingers on\u2026I\u2019m grateful I was able to take part. This was, truly, music on a human scale.\u201d Susan Scheid (Prufrock\u2019s Dilemma) \u201cA searingly introspective study on immigrant children, [Sophia\u2019s Forest] was full of vocal lines reflecting psychological depths but also electronic music effects that added greatly to the dreamlike atmosphere.\u201d David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer) \u201cWhat set Beecher\u2019s work apart? His music, Devan said, has \u2018dramatic possibility written \u2028into it. For me, I heard a storyteller in the music. His musical vocabulary had a fresh sound to it I hadn\u2019t heard before.\u2019 \u201d Peter Dobrin (Philadelphia Inquirer) quoting Opera Philadelphia General Director David Devan \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 SAY HOME \u201cInsightful, incisive, moving and meditative, it struck me as a successful bridge-building project, finding commonality across cultures and experiences.\u201d Rob Hubbard (Twin Cities Pioneer Press) ONE HUNDRED YEARS GROWS SHORTER OVER TIME \u2026what a wonderful meeting of performer and material he struck upon for the closing viola solo. Roger Tapping\u2019s almost subliminal sound was both extremely quiet and present \u2014 as \u201can old, distant recording,\u201d a note in the score says \u2014 before the piece fades to black. Peter Dobrin (Philadelphia Inquirer) In the first movement, heated lines and harmonies erupt out of a kaleidoscope of notes; then the clouds break up into discrete, drifting bits of melody, non-traditional harmonies, and slides. A hint of a waltz written by the composer\u2019s Estonian great-uncle smears away like paint dribbling down a wall, an effect that occurs in a more exposed way later on\u2026.Sensitive playing continued through the very appealing finale with its light touches of humor. A sweet melody \u2013 the waltz, I assume \u2013 becomes prominent in the viola. A virtuoso atmosphere of sweeping motion over pizzicato playing from the cello has stayed in my mind. The composer emerged for a well-deserved bow; the Juilliard merited theirs too for a stirring performance of a notable fresh work. Jon Sobel (Blogcritics) SKY ON SWINGS \u201cSky on Swings wasn\u2019t easy. But it was theatrically true and artistically distinguished. Art on this level may be sobering, but this degree of accomplishment is never depressing\u2026Even when it veered into the abstract, nearly everything felt honest about this story of two women in an Alzheimer\u2019s ward, forging a relationship when there might seem that there\u2019s nothing left to forge. Beecher, especially, seemed to be operating with sure instincts. With an 11-piece orchestra plus electronically generated sound, he broke down the orchestra into nearly every conceivable pairing, utilizing them in ways that were anything but obvious\u2026his musical invention is astonishing here.\u201d David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer) The result was a triumph for everyone involved\u2026.Beecher, who was the company\u2019s first composer-in-residence\u2026has come up with an eloquent, intricate, edgy score that maps the decline of the characters through music, mixing dissonance and gorgeous melody, jazzy inflections and jarring Sprechstimme. Richard Sasanow (Broadway World) Composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch have created a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer\u2019s disease. This was opera as real life: In a tour-de-force duo performance, two veteran mezzo-sopranos\u2014Marietta Simpson as Martha, who is far gone in the disease, and Frederica von Stade as Danny, who knows what is happening to her and is in frantic denial\u2014enacted the terror and confusion of not knowing where you are and, even worse, who you are. They were surrounded by the sounds of a murmuring ensemble of four Elders and an 11-member orchestra, led by Geoffrey McDonald, whose unsettled harmonies and repeated intervals poignantly captured the struggles of a mind trying to grasp what\u2019s just out of reach. The 78-minute opera toggles between the distress of losing and the serenity of finding, as the two women, who meet in a care facility, help each other by sinking into a new, shared fantasy of identity. Heidi Waleson (Wall Street Journal) From the moment Sky on Swings begins, there\u2019s an electric sensation of how vividly music represents the experience of Alzheimer\u2019s. Though there are stretches of lyrical reflection, including two gorgeous scenes for von Stade and Simpson together, these mostly evoke fading memories. More often, an agitated open-endedness can be heard in this very contemporary sound world. A downward sliding motif ends many phrases, and often fragments of melody are heard in disparate instruments (piano, harp) as though wending their way through the orchestra without ever quite joining it. To their credit, Beecher and Moscovitch do nothing to sugarcoat the awfulness of Alzheimer\u2019s. But they also acknowledge, without sentimentalizing it, that our remaining time here can still be worthwhile\u2026I admired Sky on Swings enormously, and I think it\u2019s a monumental achievement for Opera Philadelphia. David Fox (Parterre) Given the brutal subject matter, the opera stays remarkably agile, avoiding sentimentality even as it embraces frank sentiment. A small chorus makes swift babble in close harmony; the lines for Danny (Ms. von Stade) begin to disintegrate as her illness progresses. There\u2019s lyrical sweep but modernist angles from the ensemble of 11\u2026there is quiet nobility to the duets near the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-t-press.php","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":139,"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lembitbeecher.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
SAY HOME<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
ONE HUNDRED YEARS GROWS SHORTER OVER TIME<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
SKY ON SWINGS<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
SOPHIA\u2019S FOREST<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I HAVE NO STORIES TO TELL YOU<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
LOOKING AT SPRING: MEDITATIONS ON AGING<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
THESE MEMORIES MAY BE TRUE<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
THREE IMMIGRANT SONGS (2011)<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
AND THEN I REMEMBER (2009)<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
STORIES FROM MY GRANDMOTHER<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
HEART RHYTHMS<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
FRANTIC GNARLY STILL<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n