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Price
$20 General Admission, $16 Students/Seniors
Age Suitability
Kids and up
Paul Bunyan
Sunday, Apr 15, 2012 3:00p
Paramount Center: Paramount Mainstage
Boston,
MA
Stephen Lord, formerly the music director of Boston Lyric Opera and now artistic director of opera at New England Conservatory, conducts the Boston premiere of the 1941 operetta by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by W.H. Auden. James Robinson directs the production, with two different student casts. - Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff
Created by emily.hunt
Location & Nearby Info
Show nearby:
0.3
mi
1
Pigalle Restaurant
0.6
mi
2
Hennessy's
0.6
mi
3
60 Rowes Wharf
0.7
mi
4
Alibi Bar & Lounge
0.7
mi
5
Tia's on the Waterfront
0.8
mi
7
Brownstone
1.0
mi
8
Lucca Back Bay
1.4
mi
9
Crossroads Irish Pub
1.6
mi
10
The Stadium South Boston
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Paul Bunyan might seem an unlikely subject for an opera — particularly an opera written by two Brits when they were living in Brooklyn. Actually, what Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden turned out more than 70 years ago was an operetta to be sung by high school students. And the plot has nothing to do with how Paul dug the Grand Canyon by dragging his ax behind him, or how Paul and Babe the Blue Ox created Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes with their footprints during a snowstorm. Neither Paul nor Babe even appears onstage; that could explain why “Paul Bunyan” was a flop when it premiered at Columbia University in May 1941, and why it hasn’t often been staged since. But Stephen Lord, director of opera studies at New England Conservatory, believes in this work, and the NEC production he’s leading, through Tuesday, on the Paramount Theatre Mainstage makes a powerful case for it.
(Full review)Stephen Lord gets emotional when he talks about Benjamin Britten's first opera, "Paul Bunyan." Lines of narration spoken by the opera's main character sum up for Lord a uniquely American quality that Britten and his librettist, W.H. Auden, managed to depict:
(Full review)