The Annelies of the title of this release is the girl better known as Anne Frank, whose diary has humanized the depredations of Nazism for generations of students. Although it is one of the most compelling texts of the 20th century, it would seem impervious to musical setting: its ordinary language and the simple, universal quality that make it so compelling resist the demands of musical setting. Annelies, a work by British composer James Whitbourn to a libretto by Melanie Challenger, avoids the problems in several ...
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The Annelies of the title of this release is the girl better known as Anne Frank, whose diary has humanized the depredations of Nazism for generations of students. Although it is one of the most compelling texts of the 20th century, it would seem impervious to musical setting: its ordinary language and the simple, universal quality that make it so compelling resist the demands of musical setting. Annelies, a work by British composer James Whitbourn to a libretto by Melanie Challenger, avoids the problems in several ingenious ways, and the result is quite a moving work. First, Challenger stays away from long stretches of text, selecting concise passages from Frank's diary that carry a kind of poetic quality, often one of hope despite the terrible conditions in which Frank found herself. The text consists of bits of Frank (each one dated in the booklet) and, at the deadly conclusion, of an external report that tells the whole story. Second, the work is not a solo representation of Anne Frank, but a kind...
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