Opera Chic

Carter Burwell's "A Serious Man" (The Coen Bros, too)

Carter Burwell, one of America's coolest composers, wrote:

This is the Coen Brothers' film about a Jewish physics professor living in Minnesota in the late 1960s. The deterioration of his personal and professional lives leads to a spiritual crisis involving rabbis, F Troop, and The Jefferson Airplane. We're recording the score in mid-May.

The film should be released in October 2009.

The trailer for "A Serious Man" is here:

Fort Worth Opera to Premiere "Before Night Falls" OMG PLEASE LET IT STAR JAVIER BARDEM!!!

Fort Worth Opera's 2010 Festival will boast one of the best movie/book spin-offs we've yet heard: Reinaldo Arenas's "Before Night Falls".

The opera, written and composed by Cuban-American composer Jorge Martín, is based on the the autobiography by the late great Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas.

This isn't the first time that Arenas's book has inspired, as it was the basis of the sumptuous full-of-win film by Opera Chic main man Julian Schnabel, staring omg Javier Bardem (luckily Benicio del Toro dropped out and we got that secksay slab of fillet, Bardem).

For help with the libretto, Martín turned to Dolores M. Koch, close friend of Arenas who also translates his books from Spanish to English.

Darren K. Woods, GM of the FWO, is a frikking genius. We're so looking forward to this, we're already dusting off our Luchese boots for Spring Break, 2010.

Opera Chic's only regret is that our own composer, maestro Carter Burwell, who did such a wonderful, heartbreaking job writing the film's score, has not been hired to take a crack at writing the opera.

Maestro Burwell's website generously allows to download some tracks from his scores. 

In the meantime, Javier Bardem best learn how to sing by Spring 2010, because we're basically not willing to settle for anyone less than the sizzling Spanish actor on that Texan stage.

Carter Burwell: "Death With A Sense Of Humor"

"Major American contemporary composer" rarely evokes the phrases: "has really cool friends, among them the Coen brothers"; "is represented by CAA"; "knows Haendel and Moroccan traditional music and is into anime"; and "creates really exciting music", but for one composer, it does:

Going against the grain is Carter Burwell. Composer of music for films and other v. interesting projects, all product of his special talent. His website is full of interesting content and lots of mp3s. He has written film scores for, ahem, scores of great films -- all of the Coen bros including their latest, No Country For Old Men, then Before Night Falls, Almereyda's Hamlet, Being John Malkovich, The Celluloid Closet, Gods And Monsters, The Spanish Prisoner, As The Band Played On.