Latest happening: National Radio Orchestra of Poland recorded newly re-written VERS SATANIQUES [Satanic Verse] in Nov 2007, Joel Eric Suben, conducting, with Donnie Ray Albert, bt and Christine Schadeberg, mezzo. Work is half-hour orchestral life cycle encompassing sensual love, death, and at end, a wistful recalling of Life from far side of tomb. Eros, Thanatos, Remembrance. After Baudelaire. For subsequent compact disk release, 2008.
Opening act of new grand opera BORGIA INFAMI performed May 2003 by New York City Opera on new works showcase, George Manahan conducting. BORGIA deals with crimes, achievements of notorious clan, including gory auto da fe in which inimical priest Savonarola is burned alive.
BORGIA preceded by two-act Rimbaud opera, SEASONS IN HELL – a succès de scandale sell-out at 1996 Cincinnati CCM premiere. Work ultra-cinematically portrays double life of precocious Rimbaud in France, then - after his renunciation of poetry at 19 - his ill-fated search for fortune in Ethiopia.
Work is recorded complete on Albany Records, Troy 262/63 conducted by Gerhard Samuel. [An 18-minute video of extracts from Malcolm Fraser's spectacular staging of opera available directly from composer at blumenf@wustl.edu]
My collaborator in these works, Charles Kondek, also penned libretti for two preceding comic works, FOURSCORE - AN OPERA OF OPPOSITES, an unbridled ensemble farce of conflicting temperaments after Nestroy - this showcased in Cincinnati; and the one-act waltz-infested BREAKFAST WALTZES after Molnar, premiered 1994 by John Stewart with Washington University Opera, and thereafter performed on Des Moines Metro Opera 1997 summer fest, all preceded, in earlier version, by Chicago Opera Theater staging. Further performances now in prospect.
(My very early first opera, AMPHITRYON 4, after Molière, is to my own libretto. It is fourth opera to be based on Greek myth of intrigue and "identity theft" in antiquity. Suite of orchestral excerpts from work performed by St Louis Symphony.)
FOR SION! - OH THEE, Choral Cycle in Five Parts after Byron, composed 2003 for Washington University Sesquicentennial. Instrumental accompaniment scored in two forms – chamber version: cello, clarinet, piano; and using orchestral ensemble retaining solo cello and clarinet parts in concertante roles. Chamber version premiered April 2004 in St Louis, John Stewart conducting.
2004 saw premieres of two song cycles – STERNE UND STEIN, after orientalist friend Rudolf Gelpke in February, St Louis; and SONGS OF CASSIS January at composers conference, Arkansas State University. A new cycle, OAK, FEATHER, AND STONE – to Friends Passed and Present, composed May 2004 at Djerassi.
My 2001 Albany CD, "MYTHOLOGIES" [Troy 443], features sensuous Caribean settings of friend Nobelist Derek Walcott; choral World War poetry settings of Siegfried Sassoon; and only complete setting of Hart Crane's "Voyages", masterpiece of American literature. [Walcott sung by Donnie Ray Albert, Dallas Voices of Change; Sassoon sung by Gregg Smith Singers; Hart Crane by Pat Mason, bt, with New York ensemble.]
In other works I've also set Verlaine, Mandelstam, Rilke, Blake, etc. in their original languages, in all of which I am fluent.
In "MUSIC FOR RIMBAUD" CD, Centaur CRC 2277 [1995] my CARNET DE DAMNE hazards complete setting of Rimbaud's scorching "Adieu" from "Une Saison en enfer" [Christine Schadeberg, sop, eight players]. Disk also includes oft-performed LA FACE CENDREE [Schadeberg, cello, piano], ANGE DE FLAMME - its centrepiece, "Barbare", is the most wildly proto-surrealist of all Rimbaud's writings - this set for voice, seven players, tape, with baritone Randall Gremillion and ensemble. Disk includes two 10-minute orchestral works - restless MEADOWS OF EMERALD AND IRON, and cataclysmic DILUVIAL, both reflecting lines from Rimbaud's "Illuminations" and based in the Fibonacci series. [Cinci Philharmonia, Gerhard Samuel, cond]. My RILKE FOR VOICE & GUITAR recorded 1995 on VoxBox CDX 5145 {Rosalind Rees, sop, David Starobin, guitar].
My works published by MMB Music. I hold awards from Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters, National Endowment for Arts, ASCAP, etc. Early on I studied with Hindemith at Yale, worked with Leonard Bernstein, Boris Goldovsky in Tanglewood. I am fellow of Centro Studi Ligure in Bogliasco, Camargo Foundation in Cassis, Oberpfältzer Künstlerhaus near Munich, Djerassi (Ca), and Yaddo (NY).
In earlier years, served as roving arts commentator for St Louis Post-Dispatch, L.A. Times; and opera critic for Opera News, Opera (UK) etc. My Praetorius "Syntagma Musicum" translation published by Da Capo Press; my study of Adorno graces 75th anniversary issue of Musical Quarterly.
I long served on Washington University in St Louis music faculty, teaching analysis and developing opera performance. In the midst of this I had 1971 guest faculty stint at Queens College, CUNY.