Orpheus

Karchin´s 25-minute score was the dramatic heart of the piece. The music seemed In constant flux, creating strong, richly textured sonorities for strings and woodwinds, lustrous chords for piano, harp and vibraphone, and artfully-deployed sounds from the percussion, which added fullness and interjected brilliant splashes of color; this Orpheus floated on an incandescent fabric of sound. Dominic Inferrera sang with intelligence and ringing clarity; his brightly focused voice and crisp, clean diction were a pleasure to hear. Meanwhile choreographer Angela Jones was holding our attention with a series of boldly realized dance episodes. She was paired with L. Jonathan Collins as the anguished and distraught Orpheus. Their duets were beautiful to watch, and affecting in their portrayal of the doomed lovers´ plight.

“While it would be wonderful to see this performed with the choreography, Karchin´s vivid scoring allows the listener to imagine quite a dance unfolding. Poet Stanley Kunitz´s take on the Orpheus story, In the Dark House, which serves as the piece´s text, is a touching and surprisingly fresh rendering of the millennia-old tale.”

“Ten best” list of 2005