Another snippet from the new opera, The Boats: Canada. Method acting. Self-care. Healing broken bones when yer older. The Dorothy Problem. Glinda The Good Witch.

Roger CortonI’m sounding like a broken record, but here is yet another new snippet. Quite a change from last time.

Canada (Snippet)

JC HarrisYes, sir.

RCOK, go!

JCHGo where?

RCGo! Tell me about the song. Duuuh.

JCHOh. Right. So we know that the three sons will eventually decide to leave for America, Australia and Canada respectively. And they’re each thinking about it even as the who ‘rebellion’ is going on.

RCBut they don’t want to tell anyone and come off as though they aren’t one hundred percent behind the revolt, right?

JCHRight. As I keep hammering in, every main character in an opera gets at least one aria which tells you something about their inner life. So each of the boys’ aria is them musing about […]

Another snippet from the new opera, The Boats: To The Bank. Puns. Irish Rebellions, Ballintubber, Shakespeare. Chorus. Henry V. More on recitative v. aria. The fortunes of campaigning for office. Kick Drum. Dropping Bombs. Bill Bruford.

Roger CortonAnother new snippet. Marching right along.

To The Bank (Snippet)

JC HarrisYou’re such a punster.

RCNot really. So what’s the story?

JCHWell actually, the title is one big pun.

RCI think I get the pun. In the beginning you talk of a river bank, but at the end they marching to a bank where the money is kept.

JCHYes. The story is, again, one of those ‘truths’ I keep talking about. This didn’t literally happen, but it could’ve happened. All the captains and crew are sitting in the bar after the first day of the auction feeling pretty helpless. And one old guy has the nerve to chastise them for taking it all lying down. […]

Another snippet from the new opera, The Boats: Martello Towers.James Joyce. Mental Disorders and Creativity. Writing to order sucks. Forcing the magic.

Roger CortonAnd yet another new snippet. You’re on a roll!

Martello Towers (Snippet)

JCHWith jelly, baby.

RCAre you on track to finish soon?

JCHI’m not sure. Right now I’m fighting the fact that I’m starting to get sick of it.

RCDude!

JCHWhat? I’m not allowed to say that?

RCNO!

JCHWhy?

RCAre you serious? You’re impossible. You go all in on this thing and then half way through, it’s like, “I’m getting sick of it.”

JCHKinda whiny, huh?

RCYa think?

JCHLook, you started this whole weekly ‘reality show’ gimmick. I’m supposed to ‘share’, right? (laughs). But in my defense, what they don’t tell ya in opera composers school is that writing a show means writing on deadline. Because you have to write all […]

Another snippet from the new opera, The Boats: Sea Shanty. Transitions. Connective tissue. Agent Smith. Yo ho ho and a bottle o’ rum. Greater Truths. Cooking fires.

Roger CortonAnd yet another new snippet. And so many JC’s! (laughs)

Transition: Sea Shanty (Snippet)

JCHAs Agent Smith used to say. Me, me, me.

RCMe too. So this is what you call a “transition”?

JCHIndeed. It answers the age old question, “What do you do in the spaces between scenes where you have to change sets?”

RCOK, so what do you do?

JCHWell, you can simply bring the curtain down whilst everyone scurries round moving bits of scenery. But that’s typically only done between acts.

RCBut The Boats is a one act opera so…

JCHSo what composers often do is put some sort of music and dance in scene changes. It moves people into the […]

Another snippet from the new opera, The Boats: You’ll Never See The Like Of Me Again. Hurricanes and waterfront property. Recitatives vs. Arias. Genesis. It. Wagner. Choosing the proper length of time for an performance is half the battle.

Roger CortonA new snippet!

You’ll Never See The Like Of Me Again (Snippet)

JCHForget that. Inquiring minds wanna know: how’d the hurricanes treat ya?

RCWhere we live it was OK. But I went with a group to help out south of here. And it was unbelievable. Whole towns will have to be rebuilt for hundreds of miles.

JCHSo much for (ahem) ‘the myth of global warming’.

RCWell regardless of politics and beliefs I’m sure people are thinking differently about building near the shore.

JCHMaybe. We have this Irish expression which I will translate freely, “The Good Lord provides sweet forgetfulness after childbirth. Otherwise, we’d never have more than one […]