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1. radiOM.org - Fruit Punch Young Caesar: A Puppet Opera by Lou Harrison [5.078% Popularity: 0.00000]

Fruit Punch: Young Caesar: A Puppet Opera by Lou Harrison Listen Item Type: Sound Recording Duration: 159 min Event Type: Music Program Origin: KPFA Additional Media Files (click to view) On December 25, 1974, as a Christmas special, the Fruit Punch Collective presented a recording of the 1971 world premiere performance of Lou Harrison’s gay-oriented opera, “Young Caesar”. The story of the opera explores the meeting, and purported subsequent love affair, between the young Julius Caesar and King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. In addition to desiring to write an opera with a homosexual theme, Harrison was also attracted to the story about Caesar and Nicomedes because it represented the meeting between East and West. Building upon that theme the musical score calls for a variety of Eastern instruments including gamelan, and rather than using real actors, puppets and shadow figures were utilized instead, much as they are in Indonesia. The homoerotic nature of the story was made quite evident in such scenes as the ball...

2. radiOM.org - Lou Harrison at the Spaghetti Factory (1971) [5.077% Popularity: 0.00000]

Lou Harrison at the Spaghetti Factory (1971) Listen Item Type: Sound Recording Duration: 89 min Event Type: Music Program Origin: KPFA Additional Media Files (click to view) A concert of Lou Harrison’s music, (with one piece by Carlos Chávez), performed at The Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco on January 24, 1971. Works include several pieces for solo piano by Lou Harrison, a sonatina for violin and piano by Chávez, and selections from “Young Caesar,” a homoerotic opera featuring life sized puppets and unconventional instrumentation by Lou Harrison with a libretto by Robert Gordon. This recording features excerpts from the first performance of the opera. Musical Selections: Prelude for Grand Piano (1938) / Lou Harrison -- Ground in E Minor, for piano (1936) / Lou Harrison -- Homage to Milhaud, for piano (1948) / Lou Harrison -- Western Dance. for piano (1947) / Lou Harrison -- Largo Ostinate (1936) / Lou Harrison -- Sonata No. 3, for piano (1938) / Lou Harrison -- Sonatina, for violin and piano (1924) / ...