Robin Pogrebin accompanies Robert Caro to a rehearsal of Robert Moses Astride New York, a new opera by Gary Fagin that was inspired, obvs, by Mr Caro’s big book of 1974, The Power Broker.

To be sure, the musical is considerably less comprehensive than Mr. Caro’s 1,286-page 1974 book, “The Power Broker,” which follows Moses’ career as city parks commissioner and chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. “Robert Moses Astride New York” moves through major chapters of history in just a few stanzas, and the piece to be performed Saturday is only a sampling of what the composer, Gary Fagin, ultimately hopes will become a full-fledged production featuring additional characters like the neighborhood activist Jane Jacobs and Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. Saturday’s concert will feature the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra (Mr. Fagin is its music director and conductor), which will also perform classics by American composers like Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Leonard Bernstein and Bob Dylan.

At a piano rehearsal the other day the work sounded like an opera. It is sung through, performed by a booming tenor (Rinde Eckert), and there are no dance numbers. And Mr. Caro understandably seemed a little self-conscious, seeing it in the intimate setting of a music studio, sitting in a single straight-back chair, with only a reporter and a photographer joining him as audience. Even as Mr. Caro was observing the performance, he was being observed by them, not to mention Mr. Fagin and Mr. Eckert, who were pretty psyched to have him there.

[snip]

“All the time I was writing it, people were saying, ‘Who’s going to read a book about Robert Moses?’ because he was already being forgotten,” he added. “I said, ‘People will read this book, if I can do it right,’ and it mattered to me that the book went on beyond a couple of years. I didn’t want just one generation to know it.

“Now here they are, singing about him. It’s transmuting itself into another form of art. You feel, in a way, you did it, what you set out to accomplish.”

New lines for “New York, New York”: “If I can make Moses sing/I can do anything!”

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 6:00 pm.