Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1996 | |||
Recorded | April 1995 | |||
Studio | Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, California | |||
Genre | Classical, avant-garde | |||
Length | 65:43 | |||
Label | Sony Classical | |||
Producer | Steven Epstein | |||
Elliot Goldenthal chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Soundtrack-Express | link |
The New York Times | Reasonable |
Wired | Favourable |
Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio is a large scale orchestral oratorio composed by Elliot Goldenthal, commissioned by the Pacific Symphony in 1993 for the 20th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
It was performed publicly and recorded in mid 1995 and released commercially in 1996. Yo-Yo Ma performed Solo Cello on "Part I"; other performers include: The Pacific Chorale & Children's Chorus, the Ngan-Khoi Vietnamese Children's Choir, Ann Panagulias and James Maddalena; it was conducted by Carl St. Clair.
It is not considered an archetypal oratorio as it doesn't tell a story so much as it brings together many different poems and words of praise, the latter adding a sort of religious aspect in the form of requiem. [1]
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
Yo-Yo Ma is a French-born American cellist. Born and partially raised in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University, attended Columbia University, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 19 Grammy Awards.
Ronald James Stevenson was a Scottish composer, pianist, and writer about music.
Richard Danielpour is an American composer.
Tod Machover, is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist.
Carmina Burana is a cantata composed in 1935 and 1936 by Carl Orff, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis. It was first performed by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937. It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last sections of the piece are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" and start with "O Fortuna".
The Pacific Symphony is a symphony orchestra located in Orange County, California. The orchestra performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as a part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. From 1987 to 2016, the orchestra's Summer Festival concerts took place at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, Silent Night.
Emanuel "Manny"Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher at the Juilliard School.
Samuel Jones is an American composer and conductor.
Pacific Chorale, founded in 1968, is a professional chorus performing in Costa Mesa, California at the Renée and Henry Segerstom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Carl Ray St. Clair is an American conductor.
Mark Grey is an American classical music composer, sound designer and sound engineer.
Will Todd is an English musician and composer. He is a pianist, who performs regularly with others in his own works.
Sarah Crane is an Australian operatic soprano.
Richard Collins St. Clair is an American composer, pedagogue, poet and pianist.
James Maddalena is an American baritone who is chiefly associated with contemporary American opera. He gained international recognition in 1987 when he originated the role of Richard Nixon at the premiere of John Adams's opera Nixon in China at Houston. He has since reprised the role on many occasions, and recorded it for the Nonesuch Records release of the opera in 1987. In addition to Maddelena's role as Nixon, he has originated two other Adams characters: the Captain in The Death of Klinghoffer and Jack Hubbard in Doctor Atomic. He has also performed roles in the premieres of operas by Paul Moravec and Stewart Wallace among other American composers.
Sankt-Bach-Passion is an oratorio composed by Mauricio Kagel in 1985 for the tricentenary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. It follows the model of Bach's Passions, but the topic is not biblical, rather refers to Bach's biography. The text includes documents such as Bach's letters to patrons, and excerpts from contemporary biographies. The work is an extended oratorio for soloists, choir, and orchestra. It was premiered in Berlin in 1985, conducted by the composer, and recorded shortly afterwards by the same performers.
Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration was an 89-minute televised concert presented in Prague's Smetana Hall on 16 December 1993, in which thirteen pieces of music by Antonin Dvořák were performed by the pianist Rudolf Firkušný, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, the Prague Philharmonic Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. It was produced by Sony Classical Film and Video, Czech Television and Germany's Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen in association with Pragokoncert, the Netherlands' Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep and the United States' Public Service Broadcasting and MJI Broadcasting, and was released on Laserdisc, VHS video cassette, CD and audio cassette by Sony Classical Records and on DVD by Kultur Video.