NPR Jazz: Duke Ellington's Lost Opera, Forever A Work In Progress |  |
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Posted: 02 Feb 2014 01:00 PM PST
 When the prolific composer died in 1974, he left one of his most ambitious projects unfinished. Forty years later, admirers are still trying to fill in the blanks. Duke Ellington added more than 3,000 songs to the American music vault before his death in 1974. He also started composing what he hoped would be a great American street opera — which composers have spent 40 years adapting, trying to figure out what the Duke wanted for his unfinished opus. But before you imagine soothing arias or boisterous trills and vibrato, let me stop you: Ellington's opera is very much a work of jazz. Queenie Pie has been performed only a handful of times over the decades. Karen Marie Richardson plays the titular character in the latest production... Read more from the original source: www.npr.org/2014/02/02/269524876/duke-ellingtons-lost-opera-forever-a-work-in-progress  |
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