A problematic new release. American composer Anthony Davis has in this new work attempted a fresh stirring of the interdisciplinary pot such notable fingers as Ravel, Debussy, Milhaud, Copland, Berg, Bernstein and, most notably, Gershwin have dipped into in the past 70 years. That in itself is not so remarkable or problematic. What makes things start to get a little edgy is a far-from-perfect performance and recording of a work which was previously unheard and unavailable here in score form.
The work tells, through a series of cameos, the life-story of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King's Doppelganger within the civil rights movement, who was also cut down by assassins (he died in 1964). To tell this sometimes bitter, sometimes shocking, often pertinent story, Davis has utilized two separate instrumental bodies: the Orchestra of St Luke's, and Epistene. The orchestra plays the musical passages scored in a style consistent with the European tradition, while members of Epistene play music scored in the style of post-1960 modern jazz. Improvisation also plays a major role in Epistene's involvement. The vocalists sing in a style wholly consistent with the European operatic tradition (there is also a fair proportion of recitative given against varied instrumental backgrounds).
Herein lies one of the difficulties of the score, because the singing is exceedingly formal, in manner and in execution. The vocal writing is not particularly supple, and shows traces of going for effects (both dramatic and musical) without really succeeding. Often the opera works best when the singers are in recitative, letting the music work to achieve the dramatic effect. However, much of the skills demonstrated by the composer in these sections, especially when the jazz-style accompaniments are at their most fulsome, are wasted on the listener due to a very poor recording balance and vague sound definition. This is at its most painful when either one of the two drummers (both excellent musicians who play well throughout) is underpinning the music. Through no fault of his own, he sounds like someone throwing dustbins around offstage. There are also too many ensemble passages with distinctly ragged edges which needed re-taking. I am aware of the enormous difficulties involved in recording string sections, vocalists, jazz drummers and trumpeters, piccolos and celestas playing within the same work, and occasionally all together, but the job done here is simply not good enough. Perhaps next time.
That there will be a second recording there seems to be little doubt. The work has many felicitous moments, both vocal and instrumental, and the libretto is a good one (well—it's as good as the vocal lines allow it to be), so I am sure that others will attempt to construct a more sympathetic soundscape.
It would be wrong, however, to lay the blame for any shortfall entirely on less-than-ideal production standards. Davis finds himself without a consistent musical voice in the sections of the opera written exclusively within the western style. I detect, for one, the operas of Alban Berg often desperately raising their hands in the background and asking to be heard. The fact that the narrative is episodic, and the accompanying music is likewise, does not aid unity within the overall work. For this reason, the final act seems to fit together more convincingly than the rest. It may be significant that for much of this there are various cleverly-worked ostinato currents which combine and supersede each other to provide a flow of music and event which in fact achieves a dramatic momentum often lacking elsewhere.
The sum of all these parts? A problematic release. There is much that is worthwhile here, yet there are sections which need to be re-thought, at least as far as listening to a recording goes, rather than hearing and seeing a production of the opera itself. The work cries out for sumptuous production values and tip-top musical performances. Many of the participants here are excellent indeed, but I wonder whether it wouldn't be more sensible to make the vocal style more adaptable, more fluent and plastic; more cameleon-like, in fact. This may help knit the work's disparate elements more closely together, and allow the characters to breathe a little more freely.'