This weekend I travelled to Charleston, SC to see all three operas offered by the Spoleto Festival USA – Émilie (Saariaho), The Magic Flute (Mozart) and The Medium (Menotti). Kaija Saariaho’s monodrama Émilie had been criticized for it’s lack of dramatic impetus, but I found the interior drama of Émilie du Châtelet to be extremely compelling, expressive yet obviously contrived with the compositional convention of serialism – at least in part.
Another benefit of my trip to Spoleto: an introduction to the work of playwright Martin McDonagh whose play, The Cripple of Inishmaan, was produced there this summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBxb4kyc6Gw
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/arts/music/emilie-by-kaija-saariaho-at-spoleto-festival-usa.html#
Stephanie Adrian 