Let Us Hope It Is Shorter Than The Book

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I'll confess, I started Gertrude Stein's sprawling generational novel "The Making of Americans" many years ago. I'll also confess I'm still stuck on page 345. That leaves me 2/3 of the book to still cover.

Alas, opera has come to the rescue and I don't need to finish reading it.

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has just premiered an opera based on Stein's cubist novel that traces the history of Americans -- all Americans -- past, present, and future.

It is complex stuff and the production seems to rise to the occasion using multimedia components to bridge narrative time and space.

You can read about it here, which is about 955 pages less than the actual book. Or if you're really lazy, listen to the story below.

-- Edward






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