was composed and premiered in 1988. The work is a pastiche of musical experiences, fantasies and satires dealing with serious concert music, rock, rap, high and low art, church music, the avant garde, jazz and opera itself. In the finale, a backdrop with clothes attached is used to portray different characters via face and arms holes.
Michael Kallstrom was an invited
recitalist
for the Southwest International
Contemporary
Music Festival where he sang STAINED
LIGHT. It has also been filmed by a Tennessee Public
Television station and has now been given
over thirty performances,
including:
Electronic Music Live (Pittsburgh, PA), Composers
Resources (Atlanta, GA), and the Rocky Mountain Avalanche
Electronic Music Festival (Denver, CO).
"Overture and Prologue" -the chasm between performer and audience created by the formality of the serious concert setting.
"Remember" - past and present patrons of the arts and the situation of the composer.
"Recitative and Aria" - pokes fun at opera singers and questions the grants-oriented nature of the arts today.
"In Silence" - a meditation on music.
"White Noise" - preceded by a videotape projection, this section is a fantasy on modern, electronic technology and the "electric" nature of art.
"Stained Light" - a
reflection
on years spent earning a living by playing in nightclubs. "Hear
Our Prayer" - a meditation on fondly remembered music in the church
with
a videotape projection.
ACT TWO features four numbers:
"Crystallomancy" - a satire of the avant-garde with videotape projection.
"Different Rhythms" - rock music and high art in conflict.
"Each Moment I Compose" - an "impressionistic" ballad inspired by jazz.
"Opera and Grand Finale"
-a "modern" opera featuring life-size backdrop puppets.