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Episode 13: Stewart Wallace

Yaddocast

Release Date: 10/09/2008

Contemporary composer and nine-time Yaddo guest Stewart Wallace's modus operandi is so collaborative and interdisciplinary that it is hard to speak about his recent opera The Bonesetter's Daughter as a Stewart Wallace opera, or even as an opera in any traditional sense. In a superlative study entitled Fate! Luck! Chance! Amy Tan, Stewart Wallace and the making of The Bonesetter's Daughter Opera, journalist and music critic Ken Smith traces the remarkable journey that led to this musical masterwork: from Wallace's collaboration with The Bonesetter's Daughter novelist turned librettist Amy Tan, to the assembly of an international team of talent, to the voyage through China that brought harmony to the music and visual direction of this deeply multicultural opera. In Smith's account we see, and in the score we hear, Wallace's uncommon genius. Rather than trying to impose his particular logic on the project, he exploited its illogic, fully embracing a post-modern aesthetic that would allow him to create a global mash-up of unprecedented scope, and undeniable bravery and power.