OperaShots, Royal Opera

Agree with you completely. Excellent review.

Hello Alex, What a bizarre review... First of all I would point out that all three opera shots were using radio mics and that there was NO distortion whatsoever on Entanglement. I have produced enough albums and recorded enough artists to know that. I watched and listened carefully to the whole performance. At one point the radio mics that the royal opera house used did have some trouble with a connection but that was swiftly rectified by the efficient and hard working staff. Secondly, it troubles me greatly that you are so reductive and dismissive of the bansuri flute. It is not "easy listening" as you describe it with your very parochial review but has thousands of years of cultural development, of which you appear quite ignorant. Additionally, you have said that the music of my opera was typical of me. No it was not. It employed a very complex system of mathematics in order to ensure that no two bars of the ostenati you mention were the same. In addition the music drew from Spanish, Japanese, Indian, English and french traditions as did the libretto. The orchestra are some of the finest players in England and the singers are outstanding. The audience expressed their appreciation of that to me and the other musicians both in and outside of the auditorium. They also responded very well to the underlying idea which you don't even touch upon in your review. Alex, your opinion is your perogative but please don't inflict it on others laced with clear and rather offensive ignorance. It's kind of embarrassing.... Cheers Nitin

Er, no Nitin, Alexandra does not once dismiss the bansuri flute or the "thousand years of cultural development", she just dismisses your utterly idiotic music.

Much as I dismiss your "utterly idiotic" comment, Paul... If you are going to put something in quotation marks, please make sure it's a quotation...

Nitin - you did use the phrase "thousands of years of cultural development". And how do I know? Because I just copied and pasted it from your remarks. So lets not get over-excited. Secondly, you leap to the defence of the musicians, the technical staff and the history of your scored instruments - none of whom has been attacked in Alexandra's review. She merely questioned the music itself. Also, I believe that it is possible for a fascinatingly complex mathematical structure behind a piece such as this to be completely and utterly lost on an audience who have no idea (and sometimes little interest) in those sort of finer details. Don't take it so personally - they are there to enjoy and experience. I read Alexandra's review in the spirit of a positive account of what took place whilst remaining a tad sceptical as to the genre-challenging nature of the entire billing. Surely, raising such a discussion was the whole point of the evening? I think this should all serve to encourage you further to "push the envelope" further and keep doing what you're doing!

Thanks for your comments Nitin. Hopefully such a lively and frank discussion will help persuade people to go along to the show and make up their own minds. I'll be interested to hear the feedback as more people hear the music for themselves. I think Will makes an important point when he identifies the difference between the conceptual theory of a piece and the live experience of hearing it as an audience member. I kept being put in mind of isorhythmic motets of Dufay or Josquin when i was listening to Entanglement - the dense mathmatical patterning taking place that even with a score and a basic framework is really very hard to pick up aurally.

And thanks for your gracious response, Alexandra. I hope people come to the show and see for themselves too. It’s interesting that you talk about the experience of the audience listening to the piece as many members kindly asked where they could buy CD’s of the music last night. That in itself was very gratifying. Regarding the mathematics, my motivation in reiterating that aspect of the score was in relation to your “easy listening” comment about my work in general. I find that a contentious denunciation as I write extensively for film, theatre, dance, videogames, orchestras and television, as well as my own albums, and take all of that work very seriously… maybe sometimes a little too seriously! My response was not, as I wrote initially, to condemn your opinion (which I’m sure is as valid as mine or that of anyone else) but simply to point out a number of facts I felt were inaccurately represented in your review. I was a little disappointed to see that you had little more to say of the bansuri than to refer to it as “warbling” when it was played by one of England’s most brilliant and virtuosic Indian classical flautists. Additionally, I do find the idea of referring to the music as “world” and “meandering” quite reductive when I know for a fact that no one has ever put together a piece like this before. Nevertheless, I thank you for your words of encouragement and appreciate your thoughts and comparisons. To Will I would just point out that the rather abusive “Paul” below was not accurate in his quotation as he referred to “The thousand years” as opposed to “thousands of years”, which is actually what was quoted. I don’t feel that to correct such a huge error in time is overly pedantic when the writer had no issue in dismissing my entire life’s work as “Utterly idiotic”! ☺

Where's Orlando and Joss? I feel they should come in at this point and continue this online slanging match

I was at tonight's performance [26 June]. The Orlando Gough piece was a solo by Melanie Pappenheim, and it had me nearer and nearer to the edge of my seat as I realised about the loops technique being used, and its implication for the performance. I began to realise how the performance was carefully balanced. But it wasn't just a technical piece, and the music and theatre worked really well. It was unsettling. The Nitin Sawnhey piece was not as challenging for me, and I didn't see where the Shrodinger's Cat idea was relevant if it was only clear if you read the programme notes - and I didn't have them. As for the sound - it wasn't distorted like electric guitars are, so that's maybe a confusing word for Alexandra to use, but I found the reverb made everything too nice, and although I can tell that Nitin doesn't think it's what he's doing, perhaps it's helpful to read how it comes over to people. The slow beginning [with the flute] was superbly played, but the music was more comfortable to listen to than thought provoking or challenging - or anyway that's my view. In places, it sounded very similar in feel to 'chillout' world music like you hear in travelogue soundtracks, and the polished sound system and reverb made it sound more like a CD than perhaps it was meant to. I also didn't understand the stage set. The last piece was excellently performed but I was not so sure about the football theme. Sometimes the piece protrayed the emotion of football and sport, and at other times it seemed to make fun of it - but in an ironic way that was a bit harsh. I thought it was bit like the Jerry Springer opera in some ways. I have to say that it was a good evening overall.