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 [Tenor] (Performer)

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)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• 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.com Sales Rank: #61,775 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 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 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.

13 of 14 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)

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.

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

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.