Songs of the Living Dead

Abstract

19th-Century Music, XXVII/1, pp. 74–93. ISSN: 0148-2076. © 2003 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. 1Anna Picard, review of Sophie’s Choice, in Independent (8 Dec. 2002). 2Anticipating the premiere, Peter Conrad argued that, with appropriate care and sensitivity, it ought to be possible to represent Auschwitz on the operatic stage. “Singing the Unspeakable,” Observer (17 Nov. 2002). 3Peter Hagmann, “Filmmusik, zweite Auflage,” Neue Zurcher Zeitung (10 Dec. 2002). Anthony Holden described Maw’s “pastiche” as “echoing every late-twentieth-century tonalist you care to name.” “A Few Choice Words for Maw,” Observer (15 Dec. 2002). Maw. A much-hyped prestige project, it was directed by Trevor Nunn (former director of the National Theatre) and conducted by Simon Rattle, who described it as “the most significant British opera of the last 50 years.”1 The media were buzzing, seats were completely sold out in advance (unprecedented for contemporary opera), and concerns in the press about the prospect of representing the Holocaust on stage seemed to be a sign of healthy public debate and perhaps a confirmation that opera, though problematic, was at least still relevant.2 But critical reaction to the premiere soon quelled the hype. When the critic of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung likened Maw’s score to film music and detected multiple references to Elgar and Britten, he articulated a widely expressed view of the music as superficial pastiche and of Sophie’s Choice as a derivative and opportunistic opera of the film of the book.3 Critics were Songs of the Living Dead