TAN DUN (b.1957): Marco Polo.

Description: 'An opera within an opera', Marco Polo is both about physical journeys of exploration and the internal journeys of memory and imagination, including, in the best tradition of meta-fiction, the creation of music, such as this opera, by a composer who has travelled between cultures. Historical figures, including Shakespeare, Mahler, Dante and Li Po are encountered on these journeys through time and space, as well as embodiments of natural forces; a Narrator, loosely derived from the conventions of the Peking Opera in formalized gesture and vocal and accompanimental stylings, provides an unifying thread throughout. The music, as is commonly the case with this composer, blends many styles, from Western avant-garde to full-blooded western Romanticism, to traditions of the composer's own ethnicity and others. The staging by Pierre Audi is spectacular and brilliantly colorful, with a vivid palette expressed in the stylized primary-color costumes of Angelo Figus. The production is very much 'filmed for TV' with ample and creative use of close-ups and tracking shots with sophisticated editing from multiple camera angles. Charles Workman (tenor), Sarah Castle (mezzo), Stephen Richardson (bass-baritone), Cappella Amsterdam, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra; Tan Dun. 16:9 widescreen. PCM stereo or 5.1 DTS surround. 156 min.