Dave Soldier / Kurt Vonnegut / Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
"Soldier Stories"
$13.99 | CD | Catalog #MU010
Release date: August, 2005
Listen to the radio opera A Soldier's Story
A radio play/opera with book written by Kurt Vonnegut and the music by Dave Soldier. It's 24 and a half minutes long and features Vonnegut playing the part of a randy general.
Kurt's A Soldier's Story was everplayed on the radio as intended, perhaps due to the timely and uncomfortable subject, i.e., the execultion of Eddie Slovik, an uprepared soldier in a foreign war.
The companon piece is an oratorio for string orchestra and singers, The Apotheosis of John Brown, taken from Frederick Douglass's story of how his friend began the American Civil War.
Description
First, A Soldier's Story, a radio opera with lyrics by Kurt Vonnegut and music by Dave Soldier based on the death of Private Eddie Slovik in World War II, the only American soldier to be shot for cowardice since the Civil War. Featuring Kurt Vonnegut as the General, radio legend Phil Schaap as the radio announcer, Dina Emerson as the Red Cross Girl, Wilbur Pauley as the MP, and Brad Hougham as the Soldier.
Then, The Apotheosis of John Brown, an oratorio with lyrics adapted from the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass about the man whose actions initiated the Civil War. Featuring actress Robbie McCauley, and singers Jason White, Mary Lee Kortes of Mary Lee's Korvette, Napua Davoy, and Gilbert High with violin soloist Laura Seaton.
And all conducted and played wonderfully by Richard Auldon Clark and the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra.
NYTimes review of the concert
Review by Molly Sheridan in Time Out New York
Review in New Music Box
More about Kurt Vonnegut
More about Dave Soldier