Suzanne Farrin’s “La Dolce Morte” sets love poetry Michelangelo wrote to the young nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, after their meeting in 1532. The monodrama was performed again on December 8-9 2017 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Vélez Blanco Patio. The countertenor Eric Jurenas performed the central role in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Farrin won the Rome Prize this year to compose an opera based on Clarice Lispector’s last novel, The Hour of the Star. She is currently Professor and Chair of Music at Hunter College and Professor of Composition at The CUNY Graduate Center (and my composition teacher). Recently, I spoke with her at the Met Museum about these projects as well as how performing on the ondes Martenot affects her approach to composition.
Sound Travels Surgically
An Interview with Suzanne Farrin
