German composer
Ali N. Askin (born 1962) has had a genre-spanning career -- being
Frank Zappa's assistant, collaborating with
Heiner Goebbels and other leaders in new music, and extensive work in television and theater -- and the eclecticism of his background is reflected in his music. The score for Eisenhans! (Iron John), his chamber opera for children based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, is child-friendly and lighthearted. It is mostly tonal, with strong folk, pop, jazz, and rock elements in its songs, with a little of
Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat to add spice. A quartet of violin, keyboards, percussion, and string bass provides the witty accompaniment. The music is sometimes simplistic, but always skillfully put together, and it's frequently clever enough to appeal to adults. The libretto, by Helga Utz, a director of Vienna's Taschenoper, which premiered the opera, sticks pretty closely to the Brothers Grimm, although its tone is lighter, and the feminine presence is more pronounced than in the original. A narrator plays a large part in moving the story along, with musical interjections by the characters, and the whole enterprise feels more like a musical than an opera. The singers perform with vivid characterization and high energy; bass Wilfried Zelinka as Eisenhans and mezzo-soprano Ulla Pilz are especially effective. The sound is nicely balanced, but a little close and loud, with a made-in-a-studio-in-front-of-microphones ambience. The target audience is evidently German-speaking children; the opera is sung in German and the booklet includes the libretto in German, but with no translation.