| Haroun and the Sea of Stories | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Charles Wuorinen | |
 The composer in the 1980s | |
| Librettist | James Fenton |
| Language | English |
| Based on | Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie |
| Premiere | |
| Website | www |
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is an opera in two acts by American composer Charles Wuorinen, based on the children's novel of the same name by Salman Rushdie, with a libretto by James Fenton. It was premiered at the New York City Opera in 2004. [1]
Salman Rushdie wrote Haroun and the Sea of Stories as a short novel for his son Zafar, then aged eleven. It was Rushdie's first book after he had to hide because of a fatwa call for his death. It was published in 1990. [2] [3] Charles Wuorinen was attracted by both the plot, and the circumstances of the story's writing, admiring the absence of self-pity. [4] [5] He found James Fenton to write him a libretto. [4] Fenton had translated Verdi librettos for the English National Opera, but Haroun was his first libretto. [5] He created a number opera, reducing the characters and adding to its political meaning. [4] Wuorinen composed the opera in two acts, [3] including musical quotes and "musical puns", to emphasize Rushdie's wordplay. [4]
Excerpts from the opera were performed at the New York Cooper Union on May 2, 2000, by the New York City Opera. [3] The world premiere was planned for 2001, but was postponed after the September 11 attacks. [5] The complete opera was premiered on October 31, 2004, at the New York City Opera, [1] directed by Mark Lamos, and conducted by George Manahan, with stage design by Riccardo Hernandez. Heather Buck appeared in the title role, and Peter Strummer as Rashid. [2]
The opera was published by Edition Peters. [6] The libretto appeared as part of a collection of Fenton's librettos, The Love Bomb and Other Musical Pieces by Faber and Faber in 2003. [7] [4] The Boston Modern Orchestra Project produced a concert version of the opera, but with costumes and projections, in 2019. [8]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, October 31, 2004 [3] [9] [10] Conductor: George Manahan |
|---|---|---|
| Haroun | soprano | Heather Buck |
| Rashid | baritone | Peter Strummer |
| Soraya, mother to Haroun | mezzo-soprano | Heather Johnson |
| Mr. Sengupta, a measlyweasly clerk, and later Khattam-Shud, the prince of silence | tenor | James Schaffner |
| Oneeta, wife to Mr. Sengupta, and then Princess, and later Princess Batcheat | contralto | Edith Dowd, Kathryn Friest |
| Butt, the Bus-driver, and later the mechanical Hoopoe | bass | Ethan Herschenfeld |
| Snooty Buttoo, politician | tenor | Joel Sorensen |
| Iff, the water genie | tenor | Ryan MacPherson |
| Bagha and Goopy, plentimaw fish | high tenors | Andrew Drost Goopy, Robert Mack |
| Mali, a gardener | deep bass | Wilber Pauley |
| Prince Bolo, beloved of Batcheat | tenor | Christopher Jackson |
| General Kitab | baritone | Michael Zegarski |
| The King (can de doubled with Mali) | bass | |
The main characters are Haroun, a boy, and his father, the storyteller Rashid, who lost his ability to tell stories after his wife left him, and the villains Khattam-shud and Snooty Buttoo who want to terminate storytelling because they want to rule the world, and are powerless against stories. In a fantastic journey, Haroun helps his father to regain his potential. [3] [8]
Charles Michener of The Observer noted that reading the libretto was enjoyable, but found the music too "earthbound", although with adequate clean and forceful lines for the singers. He noted the composer's "command of organized noise". [7] Peter G. Davis wrote in New York magazine:
But the score for Haroun will dazzle any receptive ear with its incredibly broad palate of finely tuned sounds and its irrepressible vitality—a singularly apt musical response to a sophisticated children’s novel that has very adult things to say about a free imagination trapped in a world of oppressive thought control. [2]
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.
Charles Peter Wuorinen was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, chamber music, solo instrumental and vocal works, and operas, such as Brokeback Mountain. His work was termed serialist but he came to disparage that idea as meaningless. Time's Encomium, his only purely electronic piece, received the Pulitzer Prize. Wuorinen taught at several institutions, including Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music.
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Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1990 children's novel by Salman Rushdie. It is Rushdie's fifth major publication, and followed The Satanic Verses (1988). It is a phantasmagorical story that begins in a city so sad and ruinous that it has forgotten its name.
James Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.
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Hitoshi Igarashi was a Japanese scholar of Arabic and Persian literature and history and the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. He was murdered in the wake of fatwas issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran – who, by the time of Igarashi's murder, had died – calling for the death of the book's author and "those involved in its publication." His murder remains unsolved.
Der Zwerg, Op. 17, is an opera in one act by Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky to a libretto by Georg C. Klaren, freely adapted from the short story "The Birthday of the Infanta" by Oscar Wilde.
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The Satanic Verses controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was a controversy sparked by the 1988 publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. It centered on the novel's references to the Satanic Verses of the Quran, and came to include a larger debate about censorship and religious violence. It included numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings by perpetrators who supported Islam.
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Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) dedicated to fostering the development of new American operas. This collaboration is jointly led by Evans Mirageas, the Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director at Cincinnati Opera, as well as Robin Guarino, Professor of Opera at CCM. Since its founding in 2011, OF:NW has developed seventeen new American operas. From the program's inception in 2011 through 2022, co-founders Marcus Küchle and Guarino served as co-artistic directors.
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