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Here's an interesting album, in all sorts of ways.
Treemonisha was written by Scott Joplin, his attempt to
dramatize the plight of black people in the form of opera. To call
his efforts unappreciated is an understatement; the financing of his
work almost bankrupted him, and he died without ever seeing it
performed. That performance finally came a half century later,
garnering Joplin a Pulitzer Prize. Of course, it might have been nice
if he'd been around to enjoy it.
Flash forward another thirty years, to Ophelia's decision to
perform, and later record, Joplin's musical tale of post-Civil War
black life and women's liberation. Norway's premier ragtime
orchestra (you have to love the oxymoronic way that sounds) is joined
by the Seim Songkor choir. The result is kind of amazing,
and certainly the best ragtime rendition of post-emancipation Southern
life ever to be performed by an all-Scandinavian ensemble.
Not that there's a lot of competition on that score.
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