This is a thread to debate about contemporary opera. The opera that is being composed in our own days.
Of course, the obvious question is: "what is the limit of
our own days?".
For the sake of this thread, let's define contemporary opera as any opera written after 1980. This gives us more than thirty years, and is a reasonable time for a genre that tends to think in centuries.
Perhaps some TC members that are fans of Opera, are not very familiar with the latest new things in the genre. Or they are afraid only avant-garde Opera is being composed now. We will see that this is not the case, not by any means. There are new operas for (almost) everyone to enjoy, no matter what is our personal taste.
Philippe Manoury, (Tulle, 1952) is a French composer living in the US, with some important success in his career. He has been working with electronic music, as well as large orchestras.
In the field of Opera, his best known piece is
K, premiered the year 2001, in Paris. This is relatively short opera, that was the recipient of several awards in France. It's based on Kafka's
Der Prozeß (The Trial), and it's quite interesting:
This year Manoury has premiered his fourth opera,
La Nuit de Gutenberg, in Strasbourg.
It seems rather nice as far as the instrumental music goes, but the vocal treatment can be suspected, something like the usual
sprechgesang for the male singers, and the high coloratura roles for females.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl...ry-opera-national-du-rhin-bande-annonce_music
