C’est la guerre, mais ce n’est pas magnifique
“If war is hell, then Soldier Songs should rank somewhere around ‘purgatory.’ David T. Little’s hourlong opera, which made its NYC debut Sunday, takes a serious and exciting idea—the experiences of ordinary soldiers before, during and after combat—and reduces it to a mishmash of verbal and musical clichés.” [New York Post]
But neither text nor music has anything remotely interesting to communicate about the experience of war — not even “what is it good for?”
Hahahaha, I’m sure the ghosts of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong would approve of that sentence.
Glad to see you got this one squarely in the crosshairs. At least one of the other local critics seems to be too busy exchanging high fives with the composer and company on Facebook to issue sound judgement.