Joseph Newsome, Usher House
Mr. Getty’s finances undoubtedly facilitate his music’s journey from creation to publication and performance, but it should not be assumed that the richness of a composer somehow cheapens his music.
As the composer himself acknowledges in his brief remarks printed in PentaTone’s liner notes for this recording, Mr. Getty set the essence rather than the letter of Edgar Allan Poe’s 'The Fall of the House of Usher'....
Conjuring a sense of the darkness and unalleviated mystery in Poe’s story is critical to the success of a musical setting of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ and Mr. Getty’s music, though not arrestingly original or melodically memorable, evokes both an apt element of peril and a disturbing but effective suggestion of the inevitability of the destruction of the Usher line. The story’s unnamed narrator is made Poe himself by Mr. Getty, and the strangely unnerving physician encountered by Poe’s narrator when he first arrives at the Usher mansion is given an increased profile. Musically, Mr. Getty’s idiom is predominantly tonal but accessibly modern: there are passages that are reminiscent of the Bartók of Bluebeard’s Castle, and the sparseness of the sound and the depictions of emotional and social isolation and their effects upon men’s psyches recall the mature vocal works of Britten. If this is not the sort of music that is likely to forever remain in a listener’s memory, it is mostly successful in capturing and retaining the listener’s attention.
Charles Kruger, Usher House
The San Francisco Opera, in collaboration with the Welsh National Opera, presents an amazing double feature of the American premieres of two different adaptations of Poe’s haunting and horrifying “The Fall of the House of Usher.” One is in English by contemporary composer (and San Francisco citizen and philanthropist), Gordon Getty. The second is an unfinished work by Claude Debussy, reconstructed and orchestrated by Robert Orledge.
Let’s start with the simple observation that this is not traditional opera. The melodic content in both pieces is often atonal. To listeners accustomed to traditional, pre 20th-century, opera, the impression created might seem like endless recitative with no arias to speak of and an absence of memorable melodies. A lovely ballad in Getty’s version, “”Where Is My Lady and Where is She Gone,” is a startling exception, beautifully performed by tenor, Jason Bridges, in the role of Edgar Allan Poe.
Wait a minute? Poe is a character in this opera? Well, yes he is, in Getty’s version (not Debussy’s). Both librettos take, shall we say, great liberties with the story as Poe wrote it. This is inevitable. Poe’s masterpiece is large on mood and short on exposition. For theatrical purposes, a great deal of story has been added in both versions.
Musically, both operas are clearly of the the 20th century, although Getty’s version (which premiered in 2014) looks back to the music of the 19th century, whereas Debussy’s (originally composed around 1915 and reconstructed and orchestrated by Robert Orledge) looks forward to 20th century developments.
In both operas, audiences will be thrilled, in particular, by the complex and independent orchestrations, which support, challenge, interact with, and comment upon the vocal lines without mirroring or duplication.
Those vocal lines, again, in both operas, are striking for their conversational qualities. They do not repeat, much, but seem to be through composed (without repetition but continually developed) for the entire length of the operas....
In addition to the musical excellence and originality of this production, it includes a remarkable production design...
Jon Sobel, Out of the Shadows
Few musical forms have grown more obscure in today’s culture than the art song. Canonical songs and song cycles by the likes of Schubert and Rachmaninoff remain popular in the classical music world, but a recording of 20th-century examples like Out of the Shadows: Rediscovered American Art Songs is a welcome rarity.
This labor of love by soprano Lisa Delan and pianist-arranger Kevin Korth...unearths songs by American composers with distinct sensibilities...
Getty’s spare, soft take on “Shenandoah” is an especially enlightening unpacking of earthy folk material.
E. Engelhardt, The Canterville Ghost
On Saturday, May 9, 2015, [The Canterville Ghost] had its world premiere. Musically, the work of the American oil billionaire and occasional composer Gordon Getty is not a big hit. Inspired by the romanticism of the 19th century (influences by Franz Schubert and Richard Wagner), paired with a few well-known motifs such as "Yankee Doodle" and "Rule Britannia", the music is quite listenable and is forward-moving. Even musical. Otherwise it sounds like a long recitative, and this did not seem to be a major challenge either for the singers or for the accompanying Gewandhausorchester, under the direction of Matthias Foremny.
Stephen Walsh, Usher House
Getty’s own libretto has the interest, if not the appeal, that it concretises much that is no more than hinted in Poe: the old school friends, the family history, the archives, the astrology: everything is spelt out as in some ghastly symbolist soap opera. Even the friend gets a name: Eddie (no, really: guess who). And the music is anecdotal in the same way: bits and pieces, paste jewels strung on a loose thread of vocal recitative.