Peter Eötvös' opera Angels in America, based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Tony Kushner with a libretto by Mari Mezei, sees a run of performances this month at Fort Worth Opera conducted by Christopher Larkin and directed by David Gately. Originally a stage work of daunting proportions, the operatic manifestation of Angels in America has won its creators praise for the distillation and enhancement of the work's text and thematic material. Bernard Holland comments in the New York Times:
Mr. Eötvös' music augments traditional strings, winds and brass with saxophones, guitars, electronic keyboards, exotic percussion, ringing telephones and sirens. The vocal lines can ease into speech and usually operate against drifting clouds of sound. Mr. Eötvös' success with prosody outstrips that of most American opera composers in his ability to fit music to the flow of American English. He has written truly theatrical music that advances texts rather than calling attention to itself.
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