Search - Virgil Thomson, Orchestra of Our Time, Clamma Dale :: Virgil Thomson: Four Saints In Three Acts

Wonderful music and complete, but prefer the Thomson CD

jmafouce | 11/13/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is wonderful music -- inventive, tunefull, distinctive. This recording is complete and digital, but the RCA re-issue of Thomson's 47 is to be preferred. I own both."

Say what....?

John Gray Hunter Jr. | Wilmington, NC USA | 03/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What fun this opera is! Virgil Thomson likes to play with the orchestra and singers as much as Gertrude Stein likes to play with the English language. It's nonsense, but it's not. Part of the fun is trying to make some sense of the cryptic libretto....indeed, you can't help it. Your brain wants to make something of it. The music almost gives it logic, but (cleverly) stops short of filling in the blanks for you. (Regardless of the original intent, the opera has something to say about the difficulties of expressing the divine experience....I think) True, Thomson's music is not plumbing the depths of the human psyche, but it is inventive and witty. Indeed, many modern "neo-romantics" could learn a lot about being accessible without being sentimental or schmaltzy. Well worth multiple listenings."

Allusively elusively and very much as it may

Mark Singer | Columbia, MO | 09/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've characterized this as "surealists invading a camp meeting"... but that doesn't do it justice. Much of Stein's text seems cryptic (though it sings beautifully in Thompson's hands), but moments like the chorus singing:"St. Teresa being photographed dressed like a lady and then they taking out her head changed it to a nun and a nun a saint and a saint so."followed by St. Teresa singing:"Can women have wishes?"are crystal-clear. Thompson invokes Wagner and Puccini, adds (with Stein's help) a patriotic opening and a Spanish ballet, and even tosses in a witty though perfectly appropriate parody of "The Trumpet Will Sound" from Handel's "The Messiah" while never straying too far from the two-chord base of the music. The singers and sonorities are wonderful. This is timeless music and text, wonderfully performed, and certainly worth the price of the CD."