American Highways
fri 4 nov 2016 18:00 hour
American music chosen by the American pianist Guy Livingston.
AMERICAN HIGHWAYS PRESENTS MARC BLITZSTEIN, Act 4: “Anarchists at the Opera”
Composer Marc Blitzstein wrote engaging, and politically engaged music all his life. In the early 1960’s he was commissioned to write an opera for the Met in New York, about Sacco and Vanzetti. Immensely controversial, this opera about anarchists was cut short by his murder – in Martinique. Guests on this episode include Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie, and Marc’s nephew, Stephen Davis, as well as conductor John Mauceri and opera buff Fred Plotkin.
This final episode of our four-part radio series tells the story of the end of Marc’s life, and his unfinished ‘masterpiece.’ (was it? we will never know) We also tell the story of the recent revival of his music, and offer some thoughts on what such passionate intensity can mean to us now.
More at GuyLivingston.com/radio
