Terry Teachout gives a sneak peek into next summer's The Letter, that he wrote for Paul Moravec and will be unleashed at Santa Fe Opera 2009:
Taking his cue from the fact that Paul Moravec and I have lately taken to calling The Letter an "opera noir," Mark Tiarks, the Santa Fe Opera's head of planning and marketing, wrote the following blurb for this year's souvenir program:
(...)
That's a knowing and clever school-of-Chandler pastiche, and I was pleased to see it on the poster announcing the Santa Fe Opera's 2009 season. On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that The Letter is, in the oft-quoted phrase with which Joseph Kerman amusingly (and wrongly) dismissed Tosca, a "shabby little shocker."
Whatevs, Max Steiner's score wasn't half bad either.