Painfully Accurate

For Sciarrino, a modern mad scene:
non Kafka lovers, attend at your own risk,
by GREGORY MOOMJY

Mention the name Franz Kafka to a fan of absurdist literature and it immediately conjures up images of people who wake up to find they're giant bugs and machines that treat criminals to the experience of having their crimes written on them in their own blood. Such a statement raises the question: what would Kafka's wacky world look like if an opera composer transferred part of it to the stage? Enter Salvatore Sciarrino, whose opera La porta della legge, based on Kafka's novella The Trial, had its North American première on 20 July as part of Lincoln Center Festival 2010.

Sciarrino, who specializes in microtonal music, is one of Italy's most popular composers today. For his new opera, he teamed up with the forces of Germany's Wuppertal Opera, a company founded shortly after World War II, and which is known for its tendency towards presenting modern operas...

LINCOLN CENTER

ITALY

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA