“The Fall of the House of Usher” was Poe’s most famous piece of prose. But even the biggest fans of that early American master of Gothic storytelling shouldn’t be put off by Getty’s canny twisting of the tale: He’s made Poe himself the participant narrator, framing the single-act story with the author’s mood-setting Prologue and somber Postlogue, in a manner evocative of Captain Vere’s role at the beginning and end of Benjamin Britten’s opera Billy Budd. In addition, Getty…has added elements to the devolution of the ancient curse on the Usher family, and has chosen to put the Usher Ancestors into the production (as either silent performers or projections). These alterations heighten the dramatic impact of the show, effectively conveyed in this recording by the emotive and powerful voices of the small international cast… The cast enlivens Getty’s primarily discursive score, with Poe delivering the single closest thing to a set-piece aria — the harmonically chimerical “Where is my lady”… Another compositional standout is the extended orchestral writing that accompanies the entrance in Scene 2 of the Ancestors to the ballroom…and the dancing that follows. Getty grows more lyrical in this scene, with a smartly sardonic aside to Johann Strauss, and an occasional macabre stagger to the dance rhythm. The gestural aspect of much of the vocal score involves many repeated figures and octave leaps, well-paced and artfully accompanied by the Orquestra Gulbenkian… After the Prologue, the theatrical tone becomes deceptively collegial and upbeat, with Roderick welcoming a visit from his one-time school “Eddie” Poe… The transition to Roderick’s revelation of his family’s bleak history is a bit jarring and complex, but nonetheless entertaining…Getty colors the noir settings of the story and its location with effective deployment of horns and woodwinds, and interposes a celesta to represent the apparition of Madeline.