093228081425

Scott Wheeler: Naga (Opera In Two Acts)

Soloists; White Snake Projects Orchestra; Carolyn Kuan

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Format: 2CD

Cat No: NW80814

Release Date:  07 May 2021

Label:  New World

Packaging Type:  Fat Double (a 2.5cm thick jewel case, fits several CDs)

No of Units:  2

Barcode:  093228081425

Genres:  Classical  Opera  

  • Description

    Fairy tale opera has been a challenging genre for composers, with even some of the musically most successful examples, like Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel of 1893, more often presented for children than for adults.

    Scott Wheeler's (b.1952) ' Naga', working from a text that lies between fairy tale and mythology, stands much closer to Mozart's marvellous exemplar, The Magic Flute, in its musical account of a restless man setting out on a spiritual quest in a world polarized between good and evil forces that are not easily distinguishable one from another.

    Set to a libretto by Singapore-born writer and impresario Cerise Lim Jacobs, the opera follows a Buddhist monk as he leaves his wife and sets off in search of spiritual enlightenment, under the tutelage of a stern Buddhist master and the surveillance of two fiercely passionate snakes, the "naga" of the title, designating Hindu and Buddhist serpentine deities.

    Given the religious content and fairy tale legendry of the libretto, it is striking that Wheeler's Naga is neither ritually minimalist in its musical composition, nor carefully neo-classical, but a work of full-blooded passion, longing, and jealousy, gorgeously composed in the spirit of late Romantic opera. Wheeler, a student of Virgil Thomson, reflects
    some of the musical values of mid-twentieth-century composers like Barber, Britten, and Bernstein.

    Featuring soloists Anthony Roth Costanzo, David Salsbery Fry, Stacey Tappan, Matthew Worth and Sandra Piques Eddy, they are accompanied by the White Snake Projects Orchestra, conducted by Carolyn Kuan.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Naga, Act I: "I Am The Sata-snake, Long Of Years"
      • 2. "Apophis Comes, Apophis Comes . . ."
      • 3. "It Is Time, I Must Go Now"
      • 4. "Twelve Years, One Red Peony"
      • 5. "What Moves These Mortals?"
      • 6. "Amitabha Buddha, Infinite Light"
      • 7. "I Renounce All That I Am"
      • 8. "We Have Watched Many Humans Come And Go"
      • 9. "We See Clearly Only After The Fact"
      • 10. "And The Serpent Said Unto The Woman"
      • 11. "Ling Long, Ling Long"
      • 12. "You Hellish Gods"
      • 13. "We See Clearly Only After The Fact" -
      • 14. "What Terrible Famine Wracks This Land"
      • 15. "Xiao Qing, We Must Save Him"
      • 16. "O Beauty Beyond Belief"

      Disc 2

      • 1. Naga, Act II: Aria: "A Young Wife Sat At River’s Edge"
      • 2. Aria: "We’ve Been Here Since We Led Him"
      • 3. Aria: "How Many Winters Have Changed To Spring?"
      • 4. "Is The Fever Potion Ready?"
      • 5. "Love Seeketh Not Itself To Please"
      • 6. "Aaia, Snake, Snake"
      • 7. "He Has Cast A Spell On This Cage"
      • 8. "What A Beautiful Snake"
      • 9. "Snake, He Is Not Your Saviour"
      • 10. "We Spit Upon You, O Apophis"
      • 11. "Slice Off My Tongue"
      • 12. "Magic Whiteness, Magic Albino"
      • 13. "My Loving Embrace"
      • 14. "Open The Cage"