Description:

Oscar Wilde’s wit is music in itself, but when set to actual music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, his greatest comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, takes on a delightfully irreverent new life. This operatic setting follows Wilde’s text almost line for line—though translated into Italian, necessitating the famous alias “Ernest” to become “Franco” in order to preserve the pun at the heart of the plot.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco composes for just two pianos and percussion, and with this lean ensemble crafts one of the most original—and unashamedly derivative—operas imaginable. His central device is pastiche, employing an endless stream of musical quotations and allusions to enrich, and at times mischievously mock, the narrative. Wilde’s line about Lady Bracknell—“Only relatives, or creditors, ring in that Wagnerian manner”—is taken literally as she sweeps in accompanied by blasts of Die Walküre and Der fliegende Holländer.

The references are often gleefully literal. Her interrogation of Jack becomes a parody of Scarpia’s questioning of Tosca, and the revelation that Jack was found in a handbag (“una valigia!”) is punctuated by a snippet of the Miserere from Il Trovatore. Elsewhere, you’ll catch allusions to Don Giovanni, Schubert’s Die Forelle, the Marseillaise, Flight of the Bumblebee, Das Rheingold, and a wonderfully escalating parody of “Una voce poco fa” during Cecily and Gwendolen’s passive-aggressive tea party.

Whether obvious or obscure, the quotations are woven with a knowing wit that invites the opera buff to play along. The cast is strong throughout, though it’s the women who deliver the most consistently rewarding vocal moments.

In Mono

OD 11339-2