Heidi Waleson of the
Wall Street Journal offered a review of Wuthering Heights, which was recently performed by the Minnesota Opera.
"The composer Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) is best known for his atmospheric scores on such films as "Citizen Kane," "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "Taxi Driver," but he considered his only opera, "Wuthering Heights," completed in 1951, to be his masterwork. The opera was never performed in his lifetime, apparently because Herrmann refused to permit any cuts or alterations to its 3½ hours of music; it finally had one production in 1982 at the Portland Opera. This season, the Minnesota Opera mounted the piece as part of its multiyear New Works Initiative. Trimmed to just under three hours, including one intermission, the work comes off as an intriguing artifact by a composer who was clearly devoted to every one of the far too many notes that he wrote for it...
Herrmann's best work is in the lush and colorful orchestration, which powerfully conjures up the natural world that plays such an important role in the story—the changing seasons and the violent storms of the Yorkshire moors that symbolize Cathy and Heathcliff's turbulent bond.
The vocal writing is less persuasive, much of it a shapeless parlando that is merely a vehicle for the text. A few eloquent arias, like Cathy's "I have dreamt," advance the action and the character development, but others, like her husband Edgar's "Now art thou dear," in which he reads a poem out loud to her, are more like set pieces designed to give the singers a showcase. There are no multivoice ensembles, and even with the relatively fleet tempi adopted by conductor Michael Christie, the piece still feels too long, particularly in the first half. Ironically, it would have benefited from cinematic dramaturgy, a world whose constraints Herrmann was no doubt trying to escape...."
Waleson praises the singers and conductor for doing their best with what she obviously considers to be a lengthy mediocrity.
For the entire review:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703916004576271104170753020.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4
