Virgil Thomson: Four Saints In Three Acts

Virgil Thomson (Composer), Orchestra Of Our Time (Orchestra), Clamma Dale (Performer), Arthur Thompson (Performer), Benjamin Matthews (Performer), Betty Allen (Performer), Cheryl Kirk (Performer), Clifford Townsend (Performer), Denise Lock (Performer), Ella Eure-Eaton (Performer), Florence Quivar (Performer), Gwendolyn Bradley (Performer), Joseph de Vaughn (Performer), Kevin Elliott (Performer), Leon Wheeler (Performer), Linda Childs (Performer), Lloyd Thompkins (Performer), Louis Tucker (Performer), Maeretha Stewart (Performer), William Brown (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Clamma Dale, Arthur Thompson, Benjamin Matthews, Betty Allen, Cheryl Kirk, et al.
• Orchestra: Orchestra Of Our Time
• Composer: Virgil Thomson
• Audio CD (May 28, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B000005IX5
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,114 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #55 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Electronic > Computer

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Prologue

2. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Act I Tableau I: A garden at Avila in early spring. St. teresa is seat

3. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau II: St Teresa II with dove, being photographed by St. Settleme

4. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau III: St. teresa II seated. st. Ignaatius, knelling, plays guit

5. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau IV: St. Ignatius presents flowers to St. teresa II.

6. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau V: St. Ignatius showing to St. Teresa II the model of a Heaven

7. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau VI: St. Teresa II in ectasy, seated, wwith angel hovering

8. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Tableau VII: St. Teresa II, with halo, pretending to hold a baby in he

Disc: 2

1. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Act II Might it be mountains if it were not barcelona

2. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Dance of the Angels

3. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Love Scene

4. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Act III Barcelona. St. Ignatius aand one of two liteerallyA

5. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Vision of Holy Ghost

6. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Storm in miniature, without rain

7. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): St. Ignatius predicts the Last Judgment

8. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): Saints' Procession

9. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): INTERMEZZO

10. Four Saints in Three Acts, opera (full and abridged versions): PROLOGUE TO ACT IV

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful music and complete, but prefer the Thomson CD, November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Virgil Thomson: Four Saints In Three Acts (Audio CD)

This is wonderful music -- inventive, tunefull, distinctive. This recording is complete and digital, but the RCA re-issue of Thomson's 47 is to be preferred. I own both.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Say what....?, March 27, 2001

By 

John Gray Hunter Jr. "smartalex" (Wilmington, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Virgil Thomson: Four Saints In Three Acts (Audio CD)

What fun this opera is! Virgil Thomson likes to play with the orchestra and singers as much as Gertrude Stein likes to play with the English language. It's nonsense, but it's not. Part of the fun is trying to make some sense of the cryptic libretto....indeed, you can't help it. Your brain wants to make something of it. The music almost gives it logic, but (cleverly) stops short of filling in the blanks for you. (Regardless of the original intent, the opera has something to say about the difficulties of expressing the divine experience....I think) True, Thomson's music is not plumbing the depths of the human psyche, but it is inventive and witty. Indeed, many modern "neo-romantics" could learn a lot about being accessible without being sentimental or schmaltzy. Well worth multiple listenings.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Allusively elusively and very much as it may, September 23, 2001

By 

Mark Singer "jackal59" (Columbia, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgil Thomson: Four Saints In Three Acts (Audio CD)

I've characterized this as "surealists invading a camp meeting"... but that doesn't do it justice. Much of Stein's text seems cryptic (though it sings beautifully in Thompson's hands), but moments like the chorus singing:

"St. Teresa being photographed dressed like a lady and then they taking out her head changed it to a nun and a nun a saint and a saint so."

followed by St. Teresa singing:

"Can women have wishes?"

are crystal-clear. Thompson invokes Wagner and Puccini, adds (with Stein's help) a patriotic opening and a Spanish ballet, and even tosses in a witty though perfectly appropriate parody of "The Trumpet Will Sound" from Handel's "The Messiah" while never straying too far from the two-chord base of the music. The singers and sonorities are wonderful. This is timeless music and text, wonderfully performed, and certainly worth the price of the CD.