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The lesson is not that Elvis Costello can't write for orchestra. "II Sogno" proves that he can — with a little help from his friends. And what he can't do, he can find in Ravel, Bartók, Prokofiev, or Richard Rodgers. The result is a pleasant, anodyne 57 minutes, with patches of originality and at least one laugh-out-loud moment. I kept thinking, it would make a nice score for a light comedy. I know, "nice" is not a very nice word.
Il Sogno is the former pop rocker's score for a ballet version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, commissioned by the Italian dance company, Aterballetto. Costello has done a lot of experimenting with classical musicians lately, with the Brodsky Quartet and mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter. Il Sogno, his latest effort in this vein, was premiered in Bologna in 2000, and repeated at the Lincoln Center Festival last summer.
How well it works as a ballet, it's hard to tell; perhaps a DVD will come out and we'll know. Some of the scenes seem short; the play within a play in the last act is only a minute and a half.
Is there characterization, atmosphere? Can you tell the drama from the music? More than you might expect. Costello writes in a grand old style for the court scenes (faintly Renaissance in tone, with rich strings), and a mix of medieval and exotic folk elements for the "rude mechanicals" — the music bumbles, just as they do. It's hilarious, especially when Bottom, who is giving out parts for their play, and insists on having the last word, keeps coming in on strains that sound like Edward Elgar.
The fairies' world, after a predictable introduction of string harmonics, turns to jazz, with Latin elements. Titania and Oberon argue in a Ravel-like tango. The mischievous Puck gets an upbeat Ellington "A-train" number. And when he settles the quarreling lovers to sleep, it's to something tranquilizingly French a la Michel LeGrand.
There are other very funny moments. When Titania discovers her ass-headed lover in her bed the morning after, she sings to him with the voice of a choir of cellos. And Hermia's argument with Demetrius in Act II is accompanied by a screaming sax and a whip (a lot of slapping is going on). This is one really hot number, and it sounds like real Costello.
In this Deutsche Grammophon recording, the London Symphony and fine soloists play well under Michael Tilson Thomas.
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