Eric Kisch:

>...  what do you then make of Floyd's "Of Mice and Men" which was recently
>done by the Cleveland Opera? The story (and the Steinbeck novella) are
>completely engrossing, so the stage drama works quite well.  But I didn't
>see the "music" as adding anything much to the emotional ambience or to
>revealing the characters.  The words, which were perfectly understandable,
>even without the supertitles, were expository prose.  There was no bite to
>the language or the music for such an epic and human tragedy.  Were my wife
>and I alone in this view?

I haven't seen Of Mice and Men.  I have, however, attended productions of
two other Floyd operas: Markheim and All the King's Men.  Strong, dramatic
subjects to which the music added absolutely nothing.  In that sense,
Susanna is musically the strongest Floyd opera I've heard.

That said, I must add that I find Floyd's songs gorgeous, especially the
cycle Pilgrimage.  Norman Treigle did a great LP with the New Orleans
Symphony (their only commercial recording, by the way) on Desto.  I don't
believe it's been reissued on CD.

Steve Schwartz