[Translated from German] Gordon Getty sticks close to Wilde’s work in the libretto he has developed. And then there is a long – I think too long story – of how the ghost is set free by the daughter of the American family.  She alludes to the desire to be free, which the two protagonists in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman feel. Only that with Wilde, or rather Getty, everything ends well.

As far as the music is concerned that Getty has composed for this funny story: Getty’s fortune is, so it can be read, estimated at two billion US dollars. A quarter million Euros in interest rates are supposed to flow into his bank accounts daily. As a composer, Getty is not under any existential pressure to prove any originality or geniality among the guild of composers. He doesn’t have to smarm over the executioners of the so-called new music. The friendly elderly gentleman composes away, happily and breezily eclectic, not to say backward looking (but what does that mean anyway), like many contemporary American composers.  It’s quite atmospheric and effective. It’s professional theatre music. Getty admits his idols Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Wagner in the program brochure. And one hears that. So no trace of "New Music", or whatever it’s called. The advantage: This is not the kind of music that hurts anyone. But it definitely isn’t music for eternity either.