Eric Fennell - Salerni: Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast (2010)

Paul Salerni's award-winning opera with a libretto by Dana Gioia will be performed on a classical music radio station on its last night of operation. The host of the latest program, Opera Lover, is Antonio Caruso, who remembers his early dreams of fame as "the second Caruso." Three ghosts come to him — his late mother Maria Callas and a mysterious woman. Salerni's eclectic score is essentially neo-romantic, but it also encompasses varieties of jazz, light rock, bel canto opera, and Latin chant. Some of the most exciting music belongs to the irreverent female jazz trio, which functions roughly like the trio in Trouble in Tahiti, and the final music with Tony and Death has a lyrical romantic scope. The opera is solidly and originally built, and it should be interesting to companies looking for modern one-act plays. She gets a solid, if not impressive performance from the cast, led by tenor Eric Fennell in the title role, and the Monocacy Chamber Orchestra, led by Jung-Ho Park.