# first thoughts on how to compose a Lear opera



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Goneril's and Regan's declarations of love for their father ought to be done in the style of a treacly pop ballad, a la "My Heart Will Go On." At that moment in the play Lear should personify the people who like that kind of thing: fake sentimentality rather than genuine emotion. 

The play's conflict between honesty and hope will be embodied in the music. Everything fake (or calculated to preserve the inauthenticity) in the play will be in simple musical styles: 3/4 or 4/4 time, common keys like C major; everything authentic and troubling in the play will be difficult: polyrhythmic, dissonant (even - gasp! - atonal!).

So Cordelia's "Nothing" must destroy the sweet fake music of the scene, upsetting Lear. The music of Cordelia ought to express her love, but not in Hallmark Card tunes. Perhaps allusions to Berg's Lyric Suite would be appropriate here. Genuinely loving music, but utterly without kitsch.

Lear's rage and Cordelia's banishment should bring back simple music, although of course expressing emotion but still in a cliched idiom. His conversations with Goneril and Regan, even as they abuse him and he curses them, ought also to be in traditional, accessible, romantic styles. My illiterate relatives ought to be able to understand and enjoy that music, whether it's expressing anger or whatever. 

A similar pattern would apply to Edmund and Edgar. When he prays to nature, Edmund's music should be honest, but then sweet music for his deceptions. Gloucester is blinded in a crescendo of patriotic, triumphant pablum. 

The fool's sad jests should be ambiguous, tonal but with sharp edges. The storm will of course be a marvel of shocking sound - ideally, it'd be some sort of twist on the martial music from Gloucester's blinding: perhaps played backwards and upside down, but actually that might be unacceptably accessible. The rhythm and tonality ought to be broken.

Edgar's redemptive deceptions of his father must be in hymn-like tones; I would have the scene when he undeceives (and so kills) his father portrayed on stage, though I wouldn't give words to the scene as Shakespeare has it off-stage. Still, we can show Edgar speaking to his happily deceived father, then the music grows darker and harsher and Edgar throws off his disguise; unable to endure this truth, his father dies in the music from the storm scene. 

Edgar's victory over Edgar should use the music from the blinding scene. 

Lear's last moments must be musically ambiguous like the fool's jests: sentimentally sweet as if he believes Cordelia is reviving, with an undercurrent of the authentic, disturbing music, and of course, this must be Cordelia's music from the first scene. 

But once he dies, no one remains who believes Cordelia lives, and her death represents the end of authenticity, honesty. Edgar has certainly learned his lesson. The music, then, must return to the fake music of Goneril and Regan and the blinding scene, as the remaining characters sing piously that we ought to tell the truth. 

Done right, it ought to appeal to the people I'm mocking: who would enjoy the music of Goneril and Regan. The cynicism ought to be apparent only on analysis. 

Stage design by David Lynch.


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