[From the 11/15 www.sfcv.org Music News]
Carey Perloff, artistic director of the American Conservatory
Theater, is prepararing the world premiere of a musical adaptation
of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." It will replace the famous
A.C.T. holiday cash cow that ran for the past three decades.
Previews begin Nov. 26, the opening is on Dec. 2; a total of
33 performances in the Geary Theater accommodates an audience
of 34,000 - a "really big show," bringing the first experience
of live theater and music to thousands of youngsters, just as
the San Francisco Ballet does, with the nation's oldest "Nutcracker."
"Conservatory," of course, means any school specializing in one
of the fine arts, but Perloff's theater company has aspects of
a conservatory of music, with expanded musical training both in
the company and in its school programs. The music connection is
well proven by such past projects from the artistic director as
"Black Rider," the 60-year-delayed world premiere of Marc
Blitzstein's "No for an Answer" (with Michael Tilson Thomas),
"The Difficulty of Crossing a Field" (commissioned from David
Lang and employing the Kronos Quartet, with Julia Migenes),
"Urinetown: the Musical," "Shockheaded Peter," "The Threepenny
Opera," and original music used with many productions over the
years. Perloff also stage-directed the San Francisco Opera
Center's "Iphigenie in Aulis" and will direct the San Francisco
Symphony's staged presentation of Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex."
"Christmas Carol" features an original score and songs by Karl
Lundeberg, sets by Tony Award-winner John Arnone, costumes by
Beaver Bauer, and choreography by Val Caniparoli. The adaptation
is by Perloff and Paul Walsh. Music, Perloff says, is especially
appropriate for the work because "Dickens is about transformation,
and music conveys that economically and powerfully." Music
suffuses "Christmas Carol" with songs, incidental music to serve
as transition between 21 scenes, and Lundeberg even gave characters
their own themes, a la the Wagnerian leitmotif. See www.act-sf.org.
Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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