Facing Goya: An Opera in Four Acts / Libretto

Harry Nicoll (Artist), Michael Nyman Band (Artist), Michael Nyman (Composer), Hilary Summers (Orchestra), Omar Ebrahim (Performer), Winnie Bowe (Performer), Marie Angel (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Omar Ebrahim, Winnie Bowe, Marie Angel
• Orchestra: Hilary Summers
• Composer: Michael Nyman
• Audio CD (November 26, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B00006LI7R
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,731 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. ACT 1: Prelude/Dogs drowning in sand

2. How do I know you

3. Lavater

4. Leonardo says

5. The size of the brain

6. Weight the brain

7. ACT II: The theory of proportions

8. Stand up and be counted

9. Measure my body

10. Galton

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. ACT 2: Where is Goya?

2. The sequence of the gene

3. A man impaled

4. The risky gene

5. Mutation

6. Brilliant body

7. Take its DNA

8. Give me Goya's skull

9. Tortured prisoner

10. ACT 4: That day we decided

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Just as the narrative thread of Michael Nyman's most ambitious operatic undertaking zigzags through three centuries in search of Goya's skull, his quirky minimalist-based compositional style refuses to stay on a steady course. Vocal lines are rarely melodic in the conventional operatic sense of ebb and flow. Instead, they leap wide intervalic distances that deliberately preclude one's understanding of words, and the few words you can make out are set with the loopiest prosody since the heyday of madrigals. Nyman's characteristically thin strings trade asymmetrical riffs with quacky brass figurations. They often recall Stravinsky's motoric momentum filtered through Philip Glass's freeze-framed modules, with a richer, more sophisticated harmonic vocabulary than you get from Nyman's film scores for Peter Greenaway.

Once in a while, a disarming tune of the neo-Petula Clark variety seeps through, allowing the five cast members to be the real, adroit singers that they are, rather than instrumentalists who happen to possess impressively agile singing voices. Don't worry if you mistake Hilary Summers's chesty contralto for a countertenor at first hearing, or Harry Nicoll's round, light tenor for a contralto! No such vocal gender crisis engulfs Omar Brahim's roomy baritone or the two sopranos' frequent flights into the stratosphere. More significant, it's a tribute to Nyman's restless musical invention that Facing Goya easily sustains your listening attention shorn of its striking visual and theatrical components. Enthusiastically recommended. --Jed Distler

Product Description

The provocative new opera takes the listener on a fantastical journey into the dark worlds of racist stereotyping, gene therapy and cloning. Standard double jewel case and booklet housed in a slipcase. Warner. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intense, beautiful and funny new opera, December 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Facing Goya: An Opera in Four Acts / Libretto (Audio CD)

This opera, to quote to the synopsis: In four acts, dramatises the various attempts,
in the past and the present, to measure, isolate and then to own the power of artistic
genius (in particular Goya's). The libretto, by Victoria Hardie, conveys this in very
powerful fashion and is laced with dark humor. There are a lot of memorable lines
throughout, whereas in most operas you forget the words a second later.

I think most Nyman fans will find this opera very engaging, especially those that have
followed his career from the beginning. For this is Nyman at his most uncompromising and
inventive best. The ensemble and vocalists perform unrelentingly throughout. Some criticism
I've read is that it's an exhausting and even jarring work over the course of the 4 Acts
for this very reason, though I don't agree. To me it's exhilarating. The opera opens with
a very high speed and energy level taking very few breaths throughout.

Nyman mixes and references a lot of diverse sound worlds including his usual neo-baroque post-
minimalism with things like rock music, at least one instance of gospel-like singing, jazz,
a pinch of broadway and periodic bursts of atonality; in this way Facing Goya presents a constantly and
abruptly changing soundscape, all the while obviously remaining highly repetitive given that
this is a Michael Nyman opera. It is a style that was previously best represented in his opera/ballet
"Noises,Sounds, and Sweet Airs" but he has taken it a step further here. And much of it is quite
comical, especially in sections like "How do I know you know" which has a nice "An Eye for Optical
Theory"-esq boisterousness that also reminds me a bit of his first opera "The Man Who Mistook His
Wife for a Hat."

Great performance by the MNB and all the vocalists as well.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the hardcore Nymanite only, April 8, 2004

By 

Ken Braithwaite (inkster, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Facing Goya: An Opera in Four Acts / Libretto (Audio CD)

I love this music, but it wasn't easy. I had to listen to it several times before I warmed up to it. The style is very like that of Nyman's Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs. It is for hardcore Nyman fans only, but for them it is a treat.

If you only know Nyman from The Piano this will be a shock. Everyone I play this for recoils in horror.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious but seriously fun, January 3, 2003

By 

Brett Stewart "Catison" (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Facing Goya: An Opera in Four Acts / Libretto (Audio CD)

When I first saw this recording, I knew I had to have it. Of all of Nyman's pieces that I enjoy, the ones composed for his Band are the ones I perfer the most, so I was eager to see how they could perform in an opera. When I bought the cd, I didn't have any clue what the opera was about or even who Goya was. As I started listening, though, all of these started to flesh out into an opera that is above all, fun.

The plot, like most postmodern opera, is not linearly narrative. An Art Banker is obsessed with finding the missing skull of Goya, and travels through time and space to find it. In Act I, she finds herself in an early 19th century lab, where craniometrists and their assistants, sung by 2 sopranoes, a tenor, and a baritone, are measuring skulls and weighing brains to determine the personality traits of their owners. The scientists begin to argue over whether skulls can really reveal the inner human or if it is simply the randomness and beauty of nature which determines man's abilities.

After no luck aquiring the skull, the Art Banker is transported to 1930's Nazi Germany, where she encounters art critics. These critics are determining degenerate art by looking for non-Aryan characteristics. Their techniques are surprising similar to craniometrists, and the parts are sung by the same soloists. Here the narrative flow of the opera really shows, because, although the parts are different, each soloists keeps the same traits as they go from one time to the next; as if history is repeating itself. Again, they argue over the origin of man's beauty and character, and again the Art Banker cannot aquire the skull.

The final scene takes place in a genetic lab, where a microbiologist is completing the genetic code of humans. A Chief Executive watches over because he can get great financial gain from her success. The Art Banker arrives to find they have Goya's DNA and are going to clone him. An academic and a doctor argue with the biologist and the executive over who should own DNA, much like in the preceding acts. In Act IV, Goya comes back and eventually has to deal with if he is really his own master or if his life is determined by his DNA, skull, etc.

This may seem tedious and perhaps a bit too scientific, but it works, and works well. The music starts off slow, but eventually developes the rhythmic drive that Nyman does so well. The music pulls and twists, but keeps a constant motion that never winds down. Surprisingly, even during some of the darker scenes the music remains cheerful. Like when the first [Nazi] Art Critic in Act 2 sings, "Resemblance to Galton's Copt, Arab, negro, or Jew, tarts, idiots and burglars means you cannot be part of Darwin's stew, when your nose is your fingerprint." Although, the statement is rather hideous, the music, sung by soprano, soars with a sad beauty. There are comical moments as well, as in the beginning of Act 3, the scene starts with the words, "Science is a dance", and the music starts with a psuedo-waltz based on one of the themes.

In the introduction on the genesis of Facing Goya, Nyman references his projects, such as the soundtrack to Gattaca, which spawned the opera. Because of this, he has "referenced" the music. At some points in the later acts, you can hear faint shadows of Gattaca's maintheme, like when Goya refuses his DNA.

Overall, the opera was simply a lot of fun to listen to. The music, the performance, and liner notes could not be better. I actually learned a lot about the scientists and art (examples are provided through the booklet) mentioned throughout the opera. It would be very hard not to like this opera.