Herman Voaden website

[awagner]

I would like to draw your attention to two recent additions to The Worlds of Herman Voaden website http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/voaden/index.htm

"Frederick Jacobi and Herman Voaden: The Prodigal Son" is an in-depth study of the collaboration during 1942-44 between Voaden and the noted American composer (1891-1952) on the opera The Prodigal Son. Jacobi had been inspired to compose the opera by four early 19th-century American lithographs that visualized the Biblical story in an American setting and asked Voaden to write the libretto. Based on extensive correspondence found in the Herman Voaden Papers at the York University Archives, this study presents an inside account of the writing and composing of the opera, the history of subsequent concert and stage presentations in the U.S., London and Toronto over the subsequent decade, and speculates how the opera might be staged today. The posted research discusses the rise of a distinct indigenous American music in the early 1920s, the critical climate of the period, the question of nationalism in music, and how Jacobi expressed his Jewish heritage in his compositions. The site also features a complete chronology and discography of Jacobi's works, 50 photographs and the complete text of Voaden's opera libretto for The Prodigal Son.

Another addition to the Voaden website is the previously unpublished radio play, Election Report, written in late 1944-45. (Click "Unpublished Plays" and then "Election Report.") This may be the first Canadian Point-of-View radio drama and describes Voaden's candidacy as a candidate for the CCF in the June 1945 federal election. With a predominantly labour constituency and the home base of Tim Buck, Canada's best-known Communist leader, Voaden's riding of Trinity was probably one of the most difficult to win in Canada. In the 1945 election, Buck won 7,488 votes for the Labour-Progressive Party, Voaden 3,425 for the CCF, the Liberal Party 8,817 and the Conservatives 8,908.

Voaden and Tim Buck dueled one another via 15-minute political radio broadcasts on CKEY and the direct address of the audience in Election Report probably derives from these radio broadcasts. Voaden's description of the buying of votes, corporate propaganda and "sign terrorism" in 1945 make the recent federal election seem tame in comparison.

I am very grateful to Ed Mullaly for designing and managing The Worlds of Herman Voaden website.
 













-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20050302/08518d6c/attachment.html>