Preview Postview
A preview of “Job: a Postmodern Opera of Biblical Proportions” was presented Sunday night, February 4th in Lakemont’s fellowship hall. We were blessed with a larger than normal crowd in attendance who seemed genuinely appreciative and moved by the performance (were those “whoops” I heard??). Thanks to all who attended.
We rearranged the order of a few of the songs for this preview, plus added some narration to help the overall flow and continuity of the storyline. I think it helped. I have not heard the recording from Sunday night, but overall I think our sound and balance was better than ever. Kudos to Al Milliron …
Job… opening narration
The story of Job is one of the oldest stories known to man and is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, which is itself a collection of ancient books that mysteriously - mystically - connects our souls to the cosmos.
It is an artistic work of immense sophistication that is removed from any particular historical context or crisis. Its tension strikes a chord that rings throughout history… from ancient Israel’s exile to modern Israel’s Holocaust… from the genocide perpetrated by Genghis Khan’s Mongol warriors to that taking place - today - in Darfur.
Job is a story about a …
She whose name is unspoken
Job’s wife has been much maligned and, in my opinion, misunderstood. Much of that misunderstanding is understandable, I suppose, since she is mentioned in only one verse in the entire book of Job and in that, we are not even told her name. In chapter 2, after all the calamities have fallen on Job and he is sitting in a pile of ashes scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery, his wife comes to him. Verse 9: “His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
You can see why so …
Job - Beginnings pt.2
I suppose I should mention that my wife Suzanne, whom I approached about writing music for my lyrics, has a Master’s degree in music. She is an excellent musician and songwriter; she teaches piano, flute, and voice as well. She and I have written many songs together and even entire original music programs. We have never undertaken anything like the production of Job, as I envision it, though.
I don’t really know what arrogance (chutzpah?) caused me to think I could even DO what we’re trying to accomplish. But here we are. The lyric is complete and we’ve got about half of the music done… enough …
The Story of Job - Beginnings
In 1986, I started working on the lyrics for what has become Job: a Postmodern Opera. What spurred me to begin the project was a simple reading of the book. It struck me that “Job” was a magnificent work of epic poetry. I began to see that with some rearranging and rephrasing of the lines in the story, it could very well work as a musical or operatic piece put to modern music.
The opening lines of Job:
1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God …
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