Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016<\/p>\n
For my news, please scroll down…<\/p>\n
Thou Art My Love I Think,<\/em> by David Fuentes<\/p>\n Here is an interesting rock opera that draws together very diverse experiences from my past, which touched Shakespeare tragically little, and also the 1960\u2019s rock scene, particularly the Beatles and the Who, to which I pretended not to listen, but got to know anyway. David Fuentes & the Rude Mechanicals have, for only the second time in my life, pulled off an effective rock opera. True, I don\u2019t go hunting for the genre, but still think the Who\u2019s Tommy,<\/em> with its hit tune \u201cPinball Wizard\u201d is pretty stunning and, until now, I had put into a class by itself.<\/p>\n What a challenge to take a medium that measures life in three- or five-minute increments and extend it into a half-hour opera; yet, on most counts, Fuentes succeeds handsomely. Perhaps his greatest genius is finding a surprisingly comfortable home for the largely intact Shakespeare play within a play, the Pyramus and Thisbe love story in act V of A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.<\/em> The rock-n-roll idiom works so well for these texts penned by Shakespeare \u201cwith no concern for singing\u201d as Fuentes calls it.<\/p>\n My favorite tune is \u201cGentles, perchance,\u201d perhaps because it recalls Tommy<\/em> and the Who\u2019s style so strongly with its wonderful use of the electric guitar and bass, the fresh harmonies of chromatic mediants (chords separated by thirds that are not in the same key) and many sus2 and sus4 chords that remind me of the quartal chords of early 20th<\/sup> century classical music, and the brilliant rhythms. It makes me wonder why the Who is not nearly the household word that the Beatles are.<\/p>\n Certainly, the Beatles have their own distinctive style that Fuentes marvelously lampoons in the other songs, including a direct quote from \u201cYesterday\u201d and another tune I remember but cannot name. The title cut, \u201cThou Art My Love I Think,\u201d is my other favorite tune, and Fuentes wisely reprises it at the end. All in all, a show I would enjoy seeing on the stage, it is a winsome combination of The Fantasticks<\/em> (with even the Wall having its own song!) and Romeo and Juliet.<\/em><\/p>\n My reservations about the show are few. Even Fuentes seems to tire of the rock idiom and resorts to a fairly classical vibe in songs such as \u201cSweet Moon\u201d (where Pyramus stabs himself) and the following \u201cAsleep, my Love?\u201d (where Thisby makes the horrible discovery of the dead Pyramus). Perhaps the rock-n-roll genre simply does not have the tools necessary for such drama, but I found these songs somewhat lengthy, yet short of the emotional drive I craved at this point. Perhaps this is Fuentes reminding us that this whole show is only an intermezzo in the Shakespeare comedy, and he\u2019s intentionally backpedaling on the drama to keep the light, humorous touch. I also wondered if the songs that the lovers sing could not be pitched up higher, as Pyramus\u2019 low notes start interfering with the bass sometimes. But this show does warrant other performances, and the website, http:\/\/www.davidfuentesmusic.com\/#!music-for-theater\/c1x2x<\/a>, definitely deserves a visit and inquiries about that possibility!<\/p>\n By the way, my new CD Kiev 2014<\/em> has received some wonderful reviews, including Dave Canfield\u2019s write-up in Fanfare<\/em> at this website: http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Walter-Saul-Orchestral-Rong-Huey-Liu\/product-reviews\/B013XU2N3K\/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent<\/a>. To purchase CD\u2019s please visit https:\/\/squareup.com\/market\/waltersaul<\/a>.<\/p>\n My next event will be June 12, 2016, 2:00 pm, at the Fresno Art Museum, 2233 North First Street in Fresno, California, where I will be performing Quiltings <\/em>live on piano as my wife Daphne\u2019s amazing video of her sister Ann Harwell\u2019s is displayed on the screen. Hope to see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016 For my news, please scroll down… Thou Art My Love I Think, by David Fuentes Here is an interesting rock opera that draws together very diverse experiences from my past, which touched Shakespeare tragically little, and also the 1960\u2019s rock scene, particularly the Beatles and the Who, to which I… Read More »Thou Art My Love I Think, by David Fuentes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,18,15,10],"tags":[7,16,14,5,19,17,6],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cfamc","category-music-reviews","category-piano-music","category-ukrainian-national-symphony-orchestra","category-walters-new-music","tag-classical","tag-kiev","tag-music-reviews","tag-new-music","tag-piano","tag-ukraine","tag-walter-saul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}