George & Emily
On April 24, 2009, Jenny and I attended a University of South Carolina opera production of Ned Rorem’s Our Town, based on Thornton Wilder’s classic play. We enjoyed it, especially the small part our son played in it (“Man in the Audience”). :-). The New York Times praised it when it premiered in 2006, but Opera News was not so kind in 2008, and even Rorem’s own web site doesn’t seem to bother much with it.
Rorem’s site is little more than a publicity poster for the world premiere performance at Indiana University in 2006 (the omission of a year is a reminder to web designers and publicists of all kind to please, please put in years when you list dates! Also, would it have killed the designer to have spelled “Indiana” correctly?)
The Times (quoted at Rorem’s site) had this to say after the premiere: “Deftly matching the character of the play, Mr. Rorem’s music is accessible, singable and full of integrity.”
Opera News reviewed a 2008 production at Julliard: “[librettist J.D.] McClatchy and Rorem simply did not trust their material. Or (very likely) Our Town is a play requiring no song at all — it’s got its own, as much as it could ever need.”
cleve callison’s blog 
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