July - 21st Century Music

But, as Green Aria proved, the sense of smell powerfully
affects the perception of music. At the start, the opera’s
dramatis personae, five elements and 18 supporting characters,
were introduced. As each name was projected on a video
screen, the audience heard the music and smelled the scent
associated with that character. Fire + Smoke had crinkling
electronic sounds and a piercing, burnt-ash scent. In a comic
touch, it was announced that the character of Fresh Air was
indisposed, and since no replacement existed in New York, the
role would be performed by Clean Air, which combined a
bracing, clinically pure scent with wistful music, rather like
Copland in his bucolic Americana mode.
Once the opera proper started, though, the house lights were
turned off, and the audience, sitting in near darkness,
experienced an abstract drama of sound and scent. The
eclectic music was episodic yet subtly flowing, with skittish
flights; contrapuntal passages where dueling voices were
pushed to wide extremes of register; steely electronic
agitation; and calming harmonic writing for dusky, sustained
strings. At the end the characters took curtain calls, in effect,
when their names were flashed on the video screens, and the
audience got one final whiff of their scents. The loudest
ovation went to the faintly sulfurous, aptly named Funky
Green Imposter" [Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times,
6/1/09].
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