Frank Horvat’s Fractures is a very interesting new CD. It sets eleven texts for soprano and piano on the themes of fracking, environmental degradation and climate change. It’s a tough listen; not because it’s preachy or hard on the ear but rather because there is a degree of irony in the texts, the music and the performance that somehow makes the situations described even more horrible.
There’s a Faustian quality to the texts in the sense that we all (or at least most of us) go on doing the things we do even though we know, long term, it’s indefensible and we, or our children, will pay for it. And that’s true whether we drive an SUV or work for an oil company or lease our farm to a fracking company. Or for that matter fail to address fossil fuel development for fear of losing votes and tax revenues.
operaramblings 