THE GREEN BIRD

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL

Rating:

Original Review: One of the best things about being a fan of such a broad genre as film music is that, occasionally, you get to branch out and follow a composer best known for his soundtrack work into another arena entirely. Elliot Goldenthal, for the best part of twenty years, has been as musically active in the theatre as he has in the cinema. His stage works have include original scores for the plays 'The King Stag" and "The Serpent Woman", the concert works "Juan Darien" and "Fire Water Paper", as well as his acclaimed ballet "Othello" which was released by Varèse Sarabande to great acclaim. The Green Bird marks the third time he has tackled the work of 18th-century playwright Carlo Gozzi, and once again features the idiosyncratic direction of his real-life partner and regular professional collaborator, Julie Taymor.

The Green Bird tells the tale of two unwanted twin children, Renzo and Barbarina, who are disowned by their wealthy parents Tartaglia and Ninetta, and sent down the river to their watery deaths. Rescued by a poor sausage-seller named Truffaldino and raised as his own children, Renzo and Barbarina eventually come of age, discovering the delights and despairs of love and death, until they finally come to face their real parents - only to find that the architect of their downfall was actually Tartaglia's mother Tartagliona, who subsequently had Ninetta buried alive underneath their castle. If all this seems as though it has parallels in the story of Moses, that was my first inkling as well. But then I started reading all the bits about singing apples, dancing waterfalls and endless rows of toilets and none of it made sense any more. Quite where the green bird itself comes into it I'm not sure - but hey! It's Julie Taymor! You expect things to be in any way normal??

Usually, I'm not a fan of Broadway musicals. The mixed-up musical style created and made popular by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and adopted by a myriad of others, has never truly appealed to me, but I knew from experience that Elliot Goldenthal on Broadway would be a completely different kettle of fish. True to form, Goldenthal's score is a uniquely eclectic affair which makes use of many instrumental soloists and wildly differing musical styles, but also many of the familiar compositional touches that have graced many of his film scores over the years. However, it's interesting to note that, on this occasion, Goldenthal himself does all the orchestrations on the album: the true voice of the New Yorker is at work here.

The opening moments of the album are steeped in the traditions of Italian opera and infused with light-hearted hints of Fellini. 'Truffaldino's Sausage Shop' is a dainty, delicate little dance for strings and organ that recalls some of Nino Rota's livelier pieces, and which has its melodic content recapitulated in the marvellously sleazy 'Accordions and Palace Rhumba'. The mood darkens and the tempo slows for the three laments, all of which are typified by a different instrumental solo: violin and piano for Tartaglia, oboe for Barbarina, and solo violin for The King. Goldenthal's love for urban funk and jazz shines through yet again in The Green Bird. 'The Bickering' is a marvellously wild and ungainly duet for piano and clarinet, while 'Under Bustle Funk' is straight out of the world music section, rumbling to the vibrant tones of sax, bass clarinet, percussion and a Jew's harp. The Jew's harp is also a driving force in 'Green Bird Descent' and 'Acids and Alkalis', two driving, wonderfully evocative tracks that have their roots in tribal music, combining the orchestra with soft "breathing" voices in the former, and with the saxophone soloist and a jazz combo in the latter.

In the liner notes, Goldenthal admits that the music here is in a freewheeling, highly personal style that draws on unusual pairings of instruments, and many of the other cues are structured as such. Goldenthal seems to delight in making his music sound as though it is not being performed properly: many of the instruments are played so far out of their ranges that they almost become warped, further conveying the mood of distorted reality, fantasy and fable. There are lumbering orchestral chords and plaintive saxophone themes in 'Calmon, King of the Statues'; eerie glass bowls coupled with a flighty piccolo and a gorgeous, warm string wash in 'Ninetta's Hope'; other-worldly tones, pseudo-Straussian waltzes and detached voices in 'The Waters That Dance' and 'Serpentina's Garden'; haphazard woodwind shrieks in 'The Magic Feather'; and even heartbeats, barking dogs, and the sounds of static in 'Prologue (Radio Waves)'.

The new addition to Goldenthal's canon are the four original songs that feature on the album, performed on-stage by the cast of the play. They're hardly the most upbeat tunes, though, and not likely to be covered by Cliff Richard or Sarah Brightman any time in the near future. 'O Greedy People' is performed by the aforementioned singing apples in an unsettling, staccato manner above an undulating, off-kilter cello line and with the screaming saxophones that Goldenthal favours so much, until the velvety vocals of Sophia Salguero take over and, all of a sudden, we're in a smoky jazz club. 'Joy to the King' picks off where the apples left off, with Salguero intoning a portentous proclamation accompanied by a harpsichord. 'Renzo and Pompea's Duet' is the most depressing of the lot: a mournful dirge that illustrates Pompea's life - more like death, a living hell.

However, there is one showstopper: 'O Foolish Heart', a full-on crowd pleaser for the entire company with a feelgood chorus and even a tap-dancing solo. 'O Foolish Heart' is probably as close as Goldenthal will ever get to the mainstream. He's a relentlessly idiosyncratic and individual composer with a style that is completely his own, but who also seems unable (or unwilling?) to branch out and do anything removed from his now-familiar orchestral dissonance/funky jazz oeuvre. Nevertheless, The Green Bird is a fun, challenging album which reveals Goldenthal at his most creative, and is sure to appeal to admirers of his film music works.

Track Listing: Running Time: 35 minutes 51 seconds

DRG Records 12989 (2000)

Voice cast: Sophia Salguero, Sarah Jane Nelson, Meredith Patterson, Sebastian Roché, Lee Lewis, Andrew Weems, Ken Barnett, Reg E. Cathey, Didi Conn, Ned Eisenberg, Edward Hibbert, Katie MacNicol, Sarah Jane Nelson, Kristine Nielsen, Derek Smith and Bruce Turk.

Music composed by Elliot Goldenthal. Orchestra conducted by Teese Gohl and Gil Goldstein. Songs conducted by Joe Church and Jeanine Tesori. Orchestrations by Elliot Goldenthal. Lyrics by Carlo Gozzi, Albert Bermel and David Suehsdorf. Featured musical soloists Barry Finclair, Teese Gohl, Bruce Williamson, Harvey Estrin, Steve Gorn, Gerard Reuter, Antoine Silverman, Bill Ruyle, Gil Goldstein, Virgil Blackwell, Elliot Goldenthal and Richard Martinez. Recorded and mixed by Joel Iwataki. Album produced by Elliot Goldenthal.

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