Douglas J. Cuomo's "Arjuna's Dilemma" in Preview Performances at SUNY Purchase

The Music-Theatre Group presents three preview performances of Douglas J. Cuomo's chamber opera, Arjuna's Dilemma, at Purchase New York's Pepsico Theater on August 22, 23 and 24 conducted by Alan Johnson and directed by Robin Guarino. Scored for Indian vocalist, tenor, female chorus and chamber ensemble, the opera takes its libretto from a portion of the ancient Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita, in which the noble Prince Arjuna finds himself in a state of almost paralyzing confusion on the eve of a civil war and turns to the divine Krishna for guidance.

By utilizing North Indian performance styles, melodic structures, odd time signatures and rhythmic patterns alongside western instrumentation, harmonies and forms, Arjuna's Dilemma combines eastern and western music idioms. North Indian vocals co-mingle with a Western tenor and four-part choral writing, with references to both modern vocal styles and Byzantine and Gregorian chant. What links these musical worlds is the notion of improvisation, with the Indian singer, tabla player and jazz saxophonist each using their respective improvisatory traditions to reach for the ecstatic, the sublime and the terror that make up the emotional world of this work. Innova, the record label of the American Composers Forum, released the opera on cd last month, on which Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had this to say:

However Arjuna's Dilemma unfolds in the theater, it is a gripping experience on compact disc. The score is a mesmerizing blend of vocal and instrumental possibilities. Arjuna is assigned to a tenor who must negotiate high-lying lines, tender gestures and dramatic points, all the while singing in Sanskrit.

Arjuna's Dilemma sees its New York City premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in November.

To learn more on the work of Douglas J. Cuomo, visit www.douglasjcuomo.com.

To purchase tickets to the performances at SUNY Purchase go to www.artscenter.org.

To purchase Arjuna's Dilemma on Innova, go to www.innovarecordings.com.

Douglas J. Cuomo
Arjuna's Dilemma (2008)
chamber opera in one act
libretto (English, Sanskrit and Hindi) by the composer from the Bhagavad Gita and poetry of Kabir
translation by Dr. Ramananda Prasad
for Indian vocalist, Tenor, 6 or 8 voice female chorus
1(pic)0.1(bcl)0.tsx-0000-2perc.tablas-pno-2vn.va.vc.db
70'