Search - Ward, Brunyate, Gilbert :: Roman Fever

A new Ward opera

david gilbert | New York | 06/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always loved the Robert Ward opera The Crucible, and over the years have tried to see it when possible on stage. Ward gets to the heart of the drama in his music and has been too little acknowledged as one of America's finest living composers for the voice.
Now we have his latest effort, a one-act piece based on the evocative Edith Wharton short story of four women (two manipulative mothers and two much nicer daughters) visiting the city where the two older women travelled as girls and competed to the death--or nearly--for a man (himself long dead) connected to all four by the curse of the plague that swept that city in the 20s.
If it all sounds soap-operaish, it is, but the proceedings are elevated by Ward's superb score and the particular care given to this effort by the always surprising Manhattan Opera Theatre company.
The CD packs a punch in a very short time."