Great Performances

Central Park (28x6)

Air date: Jan 19, 2000

This is a filmed record of the original production of this collection of one-act operas set in New York's Central Park, the first being Wendy Wasserstein's "Festival of Regrets," with music by Deborah Drattell, followed by "Strawberry Fields," with libretto by A. R. Gurney and music by Michael Torke. The finale, "The Food of Love," boasts a score by Robert Beaser and libretto by Terrence McNally, the man responsible, as it turns out, for the whole idea of using a shared Central Park setting, thus providing the show's one obvious unifying element. On one level, after all, these are three autonomous works, sharing neither music, plot nor characters. It is perhaps telling, however, that one crucial cast member is carried over from the opening "Festival..." to "Strawberry Fields." Moreover, all three works are clearly connected thematically. What's more, their order of appearance is just as clearly premeditated. Each one deals, in increasingly intense fashion, with the alienation, the failure, sometimes willful, to communicate or connect, which, while not unique to the urban milieu, is certainly one of the latter's more distinctive, if less fortunate, features.