Words First: Talking Text in Opera

Lynn Nottage, William Burden, Poetry, Music, and Self-Adaptation

April 26, 2021 Keturah Stickann/Lynn Nottage/William Burden Episode 39
Words First: Talking Text in Opera
Lynn Nottage, William Burden, Poetry, Music, and Self-Adaptation
Show Notes

Keturah discusses two forms of adaptation in this episode.

Her first conversation is with tenor, William Burden, who chats with her about Igor Stravinsky and W.H. Auden’s adaptation of William Hogarth’s paintings, The Rake’s Progress.  They go into detail about one aria in the piece, then speak about how text and music get to the heart of our emotional world.

Next up is a conversation with two time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Lynn Nottage, discussing adapting her award-winning play, Intimate Apparel, into an opera of the same name with Ricky Ian Gordon.  They go into what it was like to self-adapt, why the piece was tailor made for a musical adaptation, and what her experience of collaborating with Ricky Ian Gordon was like.

Lynn Nottage - http://www.lynnnottage.com/
William Burden - https://www.opus3artists.com/artists/william-burden/
Igor Stravinsky - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Igor-Stravinsky
W.H. Auden - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-h-auden
Ricky Ian Gordon - https://www.rickyiangordon.com/
The Rake’s Progress - https://www.opera-online.com/en/items/works/the-rakes-progress-auden-stravinsky-1951
Intimate Apparel - https://www.lct.org/shows/intimate-apparel/
William Hogarth - https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/william-hogarth
A Rake’s Progress - https://www.artble.com/artists/william_hogarth/paintings/a_rake's_progress