''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

in two acts by American composer

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He performed his works and other 20th-century music as pianist and conductor. He composed more than ...

, based on the children's novel of the same name by

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

, with a libretto by

James Fenton James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

. It was premiered at the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

in 2004.

History

wrote ''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' as a short novel for his son Zafar, then aged eleven. It was Rushdie's first book after he had to hide because of a

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

call for his death. It was published in 1990.

was attracted by both the plot, and the circumstances of the story's writing, admiring the absence of self-pity. He found

to write him a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

. Fenton had translated Verdi librettos for the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

, but ''Haroun'' was his first libretto. He created a

number opera A number opera (; ) is an opera consisting of individual pieces of music ('numbers') which can be easily extracted from the larger work."Number opera" in ''New Grove''. They may be numbered consecutively in the score, and may be interspersed with r ...

, reducing the characters and adding to its political meaning. Wuorinen composed the opera in two acts, including musical quotes and "musical puns", to emphasize Rushdie's wordplay. Excerpts from the opera were performed at the New York

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

on May 2, 2000, by the

. The world premiere was planned for 2001, but was postponed after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. The complete opera was premiered on October 31, 2004, at the New York City Opera, directed by

Mark Lamos Mark Lamos (born March 10, 1946) is an American theatre and opera director, producer and actor. Under his direction, Hartford Stage won the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and he has been nominated for two other Tonys. He is n ...

, and conducted by

George Manahan George Manahan (born 1952, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) is an American conductor. Biography Manahan's parents were church musicians. In high school, he was a drum major in his high school marching band, and also conducted this band. Another of his earl ...

, with stage design by Riccardo Hernandez. Heather Buck appeared in the title role, and Peter Strummer as Rashid. The opera was published by

Edition Peters Edition Peters is a classical music publisher founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1800. History The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühnel ( ...

. The libretto appeared as part of a collection of Fenton's librettos, ''The Love Bomb and Other Musical Pieces'' by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

in 2003. The

Boston Modern Orchestra Project The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) is a professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1996 by artistic director Gil Rose, its mission is to explore the connections between contemporary music and contemporary ...

produced a

concert version A concert performance or concert version is a performance of a musical theater or opera in concert form, without set design or costumes, and mostly without theatrical interaction between singers. Concert performances are commonly presented in c ...

of the opera, but with costumes and projections, in 2019.

Roles

Plot

The main characters are Haroun, a boy, and his father, the storyteller Rashid, who lost his ability to tell stories after his wife left him, and the villains Khattam-shud and Snooty Buttoo who want to terminate storytelling because they want to rule the world, and are powerless against stories. In a fantastic journey, Haroun helps his father to regain his potential.

Reception

Charles Michener of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' noted that reading the libretto was enjoyable, but found the music too "earthbound", although with adequate clean and forceful lines for the singers. He noted the composer's "command of organized noise".

Peter G. Davis Peter Graffam Davis (March 3, 1936February 13, 2021)Rooney, Terrie M. (ed.). (1999). "Davis, Peter G(raffam)". ''Contemporary Authors'', Vol. 165, p. 80. Gale Research International. was an American opera and classical music critic. He was the cl ...

wrote in ''New York'' magazine:

References

External links

* {{authority control Compositions by Charles Wuorinen Operas based on literature Operas 2004 operas English-language operas