Copyright ©2000 by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
Obscurity well worth hearing is Elodie Lauten's recent two-act quasi-minimalist opera The Death of Don Juan (Cat Collectors CC713, $9.79). Not since George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children (1970, Nonesuch H-71255) has there been a composition which has the catholicity to bear hearing by fans of the avant-garde, space music, trance music, classical and a miscellany of rockers. That doesn't make it a great work (neither was Ancient Voices), but it is an important one.
The opening -- its title of "Overture" is a clear misnomer -- is a mildly interesting Reich/Glassian minimalist pastiche for amplified harpsichords and the very hip Fairlight EMI (Electronic Music Instrument). As a prelude to the opera's overall darkness, the Overture is unsuccessful; only as a musical throwaway does it suffice.
Scene one ("Vision") features a tenor voice in quiet vocalise, accompanied by several instruments, the most interesting of which is the Trine, created by Lauten and described as "an electro-acoustic lyre".
A riveting second scene ("Death as a Shadow") combines voices and instruments in a hypnotic melodic chant with strong rhythmic underpinnings. Although not particularly new in sound (nothing in this opera really breaks new musical ground), this scene uses a monodic style little heard on record, except perhaps in the work of Meredith Monk. The scene is multilingual, written in saccharine French (Je suis la Mort/Devenue plus humaine/Ta derniere chance/D'atteindre l'Etre Pur/L'Etre Pur...), high-school-creative-writing English and spare Italian. The results, despite the clumsy texts, are convincing.
The third scene ("Don Juan Enlightened") piles long vocal chords above instrumental stretches and occasional electronic punctuation. Though not quite "space music" in the West Coast sense (it is not so harmonically simple-minded), its languorousness is captivating and will thrill "space music" fans -- while still providing some musical substance for the rest of us.
Act II begins with a weak prelude for Trine, reminiscent of the "Overture". Perhaps Lauten is uncomfortable with pure instrumental gesture, as her vocal work is exceptional, whereas the instrumental work is trivial.
Scene one ("Death as a Woman") is almost sweet, a duet in what seems to be non-tempered (but tonal) intonation. The results of this are disturbing but positive, sparsely done without being forced or artificial.
"Duel", Scene two, is the most successful purely instrumental segment. The low registers of trombone and cello play against the Fairlight EMI in an electronic string contour (one that's getting much too familiar, sadly), but, unless you are a trance-music devotee, the segment, at over six minutes, is too long.
"Despair", Scene three, overlays its spoken text on an overlapping weave of other voices speaking individual words, and places this texture on an increasingly rhythmic instrumental base. The technique has been around for a while (I was surprised to hear almost the identical sound I used in my 1975 work The Owl Departing), and Lauten improves it little. The section has a 1970's avant-garde pretentiousness that flaws it badly.
The final scene ("Kyrie") is for soprano voice against a background of chorus and instruments. Although more broad in its harmony, this scene runs the risk of falling into the Paul Winter trap in both mood and composition. The cloying sweetness of Winter, however, is absent, and the scene works.
Overall, The Death of Don Juan is thoughtful, well-composed, and silkily recorded and pressed. As opera it is questionable, not because it does not conform to the historical operatic mold (neither does Einstein on the Beach or Akhnaten), but because it seems devoid of theatrical drama. A minor point. If this work is representative, Elodie Lauten belongs to that group of composers successfully coalescing the thoughts and musical expression which were the vanguard of the 1960s and '70s. As such, the work is important -- and highly listenable.