# Friedrich Gulda's Fantasy Opera "Paradise Island"



## themusicman926 (Oct 2, 2018)

I'm sure many of you here are familiar with, or at least have heard of, the Austrian pianist Friedrich Gulda. Apart from his interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and even Debussy, he was also an accomplished composer, combining the jazz and classical fields. One of his final works, an almost semi-autobiographical "fantasy opera", combined these two elements and received a few concert performances in Germany in the early 90s. "Paradise Island", as it would come to be called, received its first public preview in a concert with the Munich Philharmonic in 1989 featuring the bands Syndicate and Gulda's own Paradise Band, lead by Gulda himself at the piano. The evening also featured appearances from German jazz musician Joe Zawinul and Greek mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa. Although this work was considered an opera, it never received a proper staging and remained in a "concert form" for all of its performances. Unfortunately, this work seems to have not seen the light of day since its concert performances in the 90s. The concept may have seemed corny and dated by modern day standards which could have played a part in its disappearance. Apart from the 46 minutes or so of video footage available from this "Preview of Things to Come" concert on YouTube (linked below), no official recording or publication has been made of the score.

As an avid follower of Gulda's works as a composer, the score for _Paradise Island _ is something I've been trying to track down (if it still exists) with the hopes of 1) learning more about the piece, 2) engraving and restoring the work with the hope of 3) shedding new light upon it and even getting it a recording or a more international premiere.

I have started to try and find ways of reaching out to anyone who may have the connections necessary to locate the score. I began with writing the email that was available on the website gulda.at which seems to be the official website for the Gulda documentation center in Austria, but the website doesn't look like it has been updated for a good 15+ years or so so I'm not expecting much. If there's anyone else who is interested in "rediscovering" this lost work of Gulda's, or are just generally intrigued, any help to locate efficient contacts would be amazing, and maybe one day this fantasy opera will see the light of day again.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDOx7nx0z2hjo4_ETSXh3acCShN7xIOsJ


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