American Affairs: Great • Atomic • DesirePhotos and LettersView Featured ArtistsOpening Chords

American Affairs: Great • Atomic • Desire

One World Symphony
Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor
One World Symphony Vocal Artists

John Adams: from Doctor Atomic (2007)
John Harbison: from The Great Gatsby (1999)
André Previn: from A Streetcar Named Desire (1998)
Sung Jin Hong: Edge (2013, world premiere) — monodrama for vocalist and symphony inspired by Sylvia Plath’s final poem

Voluptuously flavored with New Orleans jazz and ripe with the threat of violence, André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire soars as a lyrical opera centered on Blanche’s inevitable savage collision course with fate. Super-charged and unwavering musical intensity floods John Adams’s Doctor Atomic as it dissects the personal and moral struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists as they worked on creating the first atomic bomb. The infatuation that motivates Jay Gatsby to become a paragon of wealth and sophistication also drives him to his eventual demise. John Harbison’s elegant and alluring score to The Great Gatsby includes popular songs and jazz depicting the glamorous and enigmatic protagonist while evoking the novel’s age of decadence. Sylvia Plath’s final poem, Edge, is both a cri du coeur and a cold accusation, filled with passion, anger, and regret. Hong’s world premiere monodrama translates Plath’s black fire for a volatile vocalist and orchestral accomplices.

Review by Lucid CultureReview by Composers of Sibelius

 


Sunday, May 19, 2013
Holy Apostles Church
Manhattan

Monday, May 20, 2013
Holy Apostles Church
Manhattan