The actress who plays Deerslayer, the talking rifle in The Whistler, happens to be Juilliard-trained cellist and composer Gerri Sutyak, who wrote and performed the score for the short film below. Her musical talent will figure prominently in my play as well. And she can whistle loodles. You can watch a clip of Gerri as […]
Archive | Music
The Whistler goes live!
Here’s the latest and best take on The Whistler yet, as we reveal more secrets about the play…
The Tree of Life
To enjoy a tale of Eternity in the context of time, you have to let go of your attachment to narrative. Much of the heavily advertised new movie The Tree of Life struck me as a fun romp through a new age of computer graphics, something like the abstract expressionism of Fantasia on steroids. (more…)
Sorry, Duchess
I woke in the middle of the night wondering whether Robert Browning could have been thinking of the 16th-century composer Carlo Gesualdo (1566?-1613) when he penned his famous and much-anthologized dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess”. (more…)
Vox humana
Instrumentalists imitate the human voice more often than human singers imitate instruments. Evidence for the rule includes Louis Armstrong’s duets with Ella, Bach’s obbligato parts to sacred arias (I am thinking especially of oboe and cello), some styles of African drumming, and even some didgeridoo music. (more…)