Key to success

After listening to Bolcom's A View from the Bridge I can really see the similarity in styles of writing to Carlyle Floyd and Willie Stark. Maybe I just get caught up in the colloquial use of accents (who would of thought you can actually sing operatically with a New Jersey/New York accent!) The music is wide and disjunct, while still remaining in a frame of tonality. The text is set well, though not particularly with memorable melodies; still the shape of the phrase matches the inflection of the language making it difficult to perceive the story being set in another language. But I would have to say that this story is much more successful than Willie Stark. I feel like I have a better connection with the characters, as if they were people that I could possibly know. I didn't need someone to tell me outside the story to grasp and understand where these people are coming from (though the lawyer was a great touch for setting up the scenario; it was seamless). I was caught up in the story wondering what was going to the characters now. I really feel that this success comes from a good collaboration between composer and librettist. Both need to understand how an opera works theatrically and be able to establish connections for the characters in a short amount of time and therefore make the characters believable and understandable. In Willie Stark, as I said before, I often felt pulled in several different directions; the characters were really unfocused in theirs actions, something that could be attributed to bad acting, but I don't think this is the case. In this opera Bolcom has clearly indicated that he understands the theater, and certainly having a librettist and author who are on board makes for an infallible trio. To fail with such means would be truly regrettable.