Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floydis an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he has based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth11 June 1926
CityLatta, SC
CountryUnited States of America
character two track
It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.
character dramatic-situations opera
Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations.
access disturbing forum magazines national pushed sort
We don't have access to a national forum that we had in those days, through the news magazines which were the television news of the time. It's very disturbing to me that we've sort of been pushed to the corners.
attention given national opera
Opera is given so little attention in the national press.
bacon fostered fourth music wrote
There's the Bacon society, which is fostered by his fourth wife Helen Bacon, but I don't know what kind of performances his music gets. He wrote symphonic music and some chorale music.
distance easy either period pieces seem
It's very easy to distance yourself from period pieces because either through costuming or whatever, they don't seem to be as much of our time.
deal great pitch singing speaking spoken strictly tried voice
I tried to use the voice so it was not strictly recitative or singing or spoken word. I tried a great deal of speaking on pitch and in rhythm.
choosing depict matter period rather subject tries version
I was choosing a subject matter that tries to depict the period more accurately, rather than the history-book version we have come to believe.
people seemingly treatment unorthodox
I was interested in what was really going on in Salem at that time, and I resolved to investigate this seemingly unorthodox treatment of the people and the period.
basketball developed early great headed literature love music normal played school
I had all the normal interests-I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and literature and the theater.
colleagues comments responses surrounded
If you are surrounded by colleagues you trust, and if you can use their comments and responses creatively, I think it's tremendous.
fashions operas people respond time
I don't know how any of my operas will play in 20 years. It will have a lot to do with the fashions of the time and what people respond to.
country important composer
Most of the important composers in our country are clustered in the Northeast.
doe different something-new
Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.