New Releasings
Labor Records in collaboration with Naxos is releasing a series of recordings of my work covering more than half a century! The most recent release is "Jukebox in the Tavern of Love" paired with a new work by Meredith Monk. "The Nude Paper Sermon" and "Wiretap" is a double album containing no fewer than five works; see below for details. "Civilization & its Discontents" is a words-and-music collaboration with Michael Sahl. More information, reviews and ordering (physical or digital editions) is available below or by going to Labor Records.
Workshop Performance of Big Jim & the Small-Time Investors
An atelier or workshop performance of Big Jim & the Small-Time Investors—music by Eric Salzman, libretto by Salzman after a text by Ned Jackson—will take place at the Flea Theater, 41 White Street, Tribeca, New York City, on March 29th at 8:00pm. This new work is about an L.A. con man who claims to have invented a virtual reality machine which allows the user to see his wildest fantasies come true. Matt Morgan plays Jim, Laila Salins is his wife Kim, Scott Bearden is his manager Stan, Marni Nixon his Mom and there is an ensemble of 8. Antoine Laprise will direct and Michael Fennelly is the music director. The production is part of a week-long event at the Center for Contemporary Opera at The Flea that includes three other workshops and a special evening honoring John Cage’s 100th birthday. Grethe Holby directs performances of Cage’s Europera 5 and a staging of the Satie Socrate that uses his arrangements.
Date Posted // February 28, 2012
In Categories // Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors, Events, Music Theater, News, Works and Productions
Now Available on CD—Civilization & Its Discontents
Civilization & Its Discontents—a lively and biting musical satire written and composed jointly by Eric Salzman and Michael Sahl—is now available on CD.
- Buy from Labor Records
- Read More
Date Posted // January 31, 2012
In Categories // Civilization and Its Discontents, Music Theater, News, Recordings
The New Music Theater for Christmas
Trish Causey has put The New Music Theater in her top 10 list of Christmas gifts in her Theater Blog for About.com:
“Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi have done an incredible job of mapping the vast and ever-changing artform of Musical Theatre. No longer viewed as the unfortunate hybrid of operetta and Vaudeville, Music Theatre is an artform to be reckoned with… This 416-page survey of changing writing and performing styles should be on the book of every theatre lover.”
Date Posted // November 02, 2011
In Categories // Music Theater, News, Reviews, The New Music Theater, Writings
Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors
The Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) will produce a workshop version of Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors, a new opera or music-theater work currently in progress. The piece (libretto by Ned Jackson and Eric Salzman, music by Salzman), based on a real story, concerns an L.A. con man who persuades investors to put substantial amounts of money into the development of his invention: a virtual reality headset which enables viewers to imagine that their deepest dreams have come true. The workshop production is scheduled for next fall.
Date Posted // April 04, 2011
In Categories // Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors, Music Theater, Works and Productions
Center for Contemporary Opera Benefit and Gala
The Center for Contemporary Opera’s benefit and gala at the Cell Theatre on Friday, February 19, 2010, will feature the Chanson de l’Opium from Salzman’s score for a French translation of Brecht’s La Bonne Ame de Setchouan. It will be performed by Laila Salins, mezzo-soprano, and Bill Schimmel, accordion, who gave the concert premiere in December. The program also includes excerpts from Michael Dellaira’s The Secret Agent, Susan Hurley’s Anais, and a short opera buffa called Review, based on a New Yorker story by Patricia Marx with music by Jeremy Beck. For ticket information go to www.brownpapertickets.com or call 1-800-838-3006.
Date Posted // January 19, 2010
In Categories // Events, La Bonne Ame de Setchouan, Music Theater, News, Works and Productions