“The Enchanted Island” Delights
The most beautiful music in New York right now is occuring twice a week at the Metropolitan Opera, with its spectacular Baroque opera mash-up, “The Enchanted Island.” Jeremy Sams tells you here how he concocted the story from “The Tempest” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The friend who accompanied me to the production, which will be broadcast live in HD and be broadcast on the radio on January 21, pointed out that Baroque opera certainly likes to take a single phrase and spin it out for three or four minutes of repetition. Later that night, when we were listening to hits at some bar, I pointed out that pop songs do exactly the same thing: I shudder to think how many times we hear the word “domino” in Jessie J‘s current smash of the same name. The concept of a hook is hundreds of years old. I think my friend got the point. (I know he did!)
