fffanfare!! (2022)
Duration: 5 minutes
Instrumentation: 3(3=pic)3(3=eh)3(3=bcl)3(3=cbn)/4331/tmp, 2pc, hp/strings
Commissioner: San Francisco Opera in celebration of its centennial season
Performance History
9/9/2022 San Francisco Opera w/ Eun Sun Kim (director), San Francisco, CA
9/11/2022 San Francisco Opera w/ Eun Sun Kim (director), San Francisco, CA
"... charmingly protean ..." Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"... a five-minute tour de force..." Donna's Chronicle
Program Notes
Imagine that you are enjoying a relaxing moment after a long day, sipping one of your favorite drinks. Better yet, one of your favorite opera themes fades in, leading you into a journey going through various operatic moments and memories around them - just like Alice falling into and wondering the Wonderland. This is what I hope fffanfare!! (you may read it as fast-forward fanfare) portrays.
I selected and interwove around 30 themes from various operas, including Puccini's Che Gelida Manina from La Bohème, which is the first opera that the San Francisco Opera performed, and the overture of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, one of the very first operas. Generally, these themes are introduced more or less in a chronological order of the opera/composers, which makes it like 'fast-forward' (going through the history of opera within five minutes).
Just as operas are not about composers themselves but the stories they deliver, this piece is not about me but a homage to these great composers, and an ode to 'having a wonderful time with music.' The 'scavenger hunt (I would say, intermediate level?)' will add an extra layer of fun to the audience!
Instrumentation: 3(3=pic)3(3=eh)3(3=bcl)3(3=cbn)/4331/tmp, 2pc, hp/strings
Commissioner: San Francisco Opera in celebration of its centennial season
Performance History
9/9/2022 San Francisco Opera w/ Eun Sun Kim (director), San Francisco, CA
9/11/2022 San Francisco Opera w/ Eun Sun Kim (director), San Francisco, CA
"... charmingly protean ..." Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
"... a five-minute tour de force..." Donna's Chronicle
Program Notes
Imagine that you are enjoying a relaxing moment after a long day, sipping one of your favorite drinks. Better yet, one of your favorite opera themes fades in, leading you into a journey going through various operatic moments and memories around them - just like Alice falling into and wondering the Wonderland. This is what I hope fffanfare!! (you may read it as fast-forward fanfare) portrays.
I selected and interwove around 30 themes from various operas, including Puccini's Che Gelida Manina from La Bohème, which is the first opera that the San Francisco Opera performed, and the overture of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, one of the very first operas. Generally, these themes are introduced more or less in a chronological order of the opera/composers, which makes it like 'fast-forward' (going through the history of opera within five minutes).
Just as operas are not about composers themselves but the stories they deliver, this piece is not about me but a homage to these great composers, and an ode to 'having a wonderful time with music.' The 'scavenger hunt (I would say, intermediate level?)' will add an extra layer of fun to the audience!