Pine Eyes

(Part I)

Pine Eyes is based on Carlo Collodi's much admired "The Adventures of Pinocchio". My adaptation, though of necessity much abridged, is as faithful as possible to the language and character of the original. The title Pine Eyes is a possible translation of the Italian, pino (pine) + occhio (eye). The mixture of narration, abstract music, and sound effects are intended to create a musical theater of the imagination.

There are four scenes in Part I

(my own titles)

1. Myths of Origin

2. Illusions of Paternity

3. Disorder and Early Sorrow

4. Uberm Sternenzelt Muss ein Lieber Vater Wohnen
(a loving father must live above the heavens)

Pine Eyes is the penultimate 'opera' or work in my extended composition 'Opere della Musica Povera' or 'Works of a Poor Music'. Begun in 1990, these twelve compositions (one in each key) explore themes of poverty, extremity and loss. The special character of Pinocchio's story - that of a poor wooden puppet who through a series of vivid adventures comes to learn and later embody the ambivalence of the human condition - makes this work the apotheosis of the Musica Povera.

Pine Eyes was commissioned by Zeitgeist and premiered January 16, 1999 in St. Paul, Minnesota.