Word: houdini
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...occasion was the U.S. premiere of Houdini a "circus opera" by Dutch Composer Peter Schat and British Writer Adrian Mitchell. A note in Mitchell's libretto says that the work-originally produced in Amsterdam in 1977-"isn't a documentary but a celebration." What it celebrates is the spirit of human freedom symbolized by Houdini's ingenious escapes from every form of shackle and confinement...
...useful" to a broad public. Schat, 44, a political radical, was one of the collaborators on the 1969 Dutch opera Reconstruction, a political fantasia on Don Giovanni in which the Don represented imperialism and the Commendatore turned out to be Che Guevara. Thus it comes as no surprise that Houdini is suffused with a romantic-and at times sentimental-populism. In the final scene, Houdini appears from beyond the grave with the message that "there is no heaven but the people/ Let the people of the world/ shake off their chains/ and sing." To move from a vaudeville artiste slipping...
...Houdini, Tenor Jerold Norman was re-creating his role in the Amsterdam production, and the experience showed in his secure, if rather monochromatic, performance. Other major roles were ably filled by Rita Shane as Houdini's mother, John Brandstetter as his manager and Viviane Thomas as Bess. Conductor Richard Dufallo, who heads Aspen's annual Conference on Contemporary Music (at which Schat is one of this year's composers-in-residence), had the work firmly in hand. His youthful chorus and orchestra managed most of the score's difficulties, though without making them sound any less...
Other public interest lawyers are not so pleased; one calls Morgan a "moral Houdini." In addition to representing Sears, Morgan is paid a retainer by the Tobacco Institute to argue "smokers' rights." Protests Mark Green, director of Congress Watch, a Nader consumer lobby: "Morgan is using civil liberties as a smokescreen for corporate interests. It's really a bizarre evolution for a public interest lawyer...
...what number did the Houdini of the Hardwood wear with Cincy...