![]() ![]() ![]() Haroun, based on the children’s book by Salman Rushdie, is a very surreal story: this tale of a boy trying to help his storytelling father Rashid regain the confidence to tell stories after his wife leaves him is essentially what you would get if Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland had been written as a modern-day fairy tale that is aware it’s a fairy tale. It was thrilling, it was dramatic, and it did not fail to address the book’s political undertones. Having seen the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s concertized performance of his earlier opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories, however, I think it is rather apparent that Wuorinen has had a good amount of practice dealing in the rather strange paradox of being a serialist opera composer and honestly, Haroun almost works better just because the nature of the story lends itself better to a serialist opera. At the time, I figured it was a logical choice, considering how Annie Proulx’s prose worked to set up such a paradox. Those of you who are faithful Schmopera readers will likely recall that, when I reviewed Brokeback Mountain at the conclusion of last year’s New York City Opera season, I pointed at the paradox of Wuorinen’s highly dissonant score used to depict a romance, and the ways that paradox works in that opera’s favor. ![]() Haroun and the Sea of Stories a surreal, timely treat Review Arturo Fernandez Jan 20, 2019 ![]()
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