2009/4/11 Jonathan Kulp <address@hidden>:
I want in on this, too! All I've been lacking to have a go at writing an
opera is a libretto. :)
OK, let's start a composers team then, but you'll have to find a good
name for it :-)
As for the need of a libretto, I have to say that this was quite a
story for me. (It's off-topic, but I'm afraid we're way past that by
now).
For a couple of years, I've been looking for a good libretto,
reading many plays, getting in touch with various playwrights.
Everything I found was too verbose, too serious. I was about to give
up...
At this time, I was a literature student, and I was writing a thesis
on Lewis Trondheim, a comic books author I had been fond of since I
was a child; then some day I thought "hey, this is the guy I need!"
Of course, he was twice my age, and was some kind of a world-famous star.
Nevertheless, I sent him a mail: "greetings, I'm a 20-years-old
piano teacher, so far I have done nothing with my life, would you be
interested in writing an opera with me?"
He immediately answered: "Well, it's a funny coincidence, yesterday
I was walking in the street, near the Opera House, and I thought:
"Operas are mostly old or boring, it's a pity young people do not take
some action and do something about it..." So, let's do this!"
And this is how I got started. He wrote the libretto without being
paid a dime, sending me each scene after another, accepting every
modifications I suggested; for two years we never met nor call each
other, and worked only by e-mail; the very first time he heard _any_
music of mine was at the opera's rehearsal four years later. And as
soon as we got out, he told me: "OK, let's write a new opera now. And
this time, I want some zombies in it!"
Cheers,
Valentin