Margaret Garner (A Review)
So it's time to play catch-up. First we have a review for the opera Margaret Garner from Fred Allen, a colleague of mine who runs things at www.americanheritage.com. He is a trusted source when it comes to things musical, particularly classical music. Unfortunately, the news isn't good, and the reasons behind the critique sound, so I felt I should share it with you: I saw Margaret Garner when it opened, and I have to say I was disappointed. The problem was partly the dull music but partly the story’s being very problematic for opera, for two reasons. First, you’ve got a heroine who is very morally ambiguous in a way that an opera, or at least this one, can’t get into. Killing your child is very disturbing no matter how good the reason, and killing her while letting yourself live, for whatever reason, doesn’t help. Beloved is so great because it’s about the ghost of the child coming back to haunt the mother, right? This is about the mother being a purely noble victim for killin...