The Haroun Songbook

Charles Wuorinen writes: "The Haroun Songbook is a collection of excerpts from my opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories (based on the novel by Salman Rushdie), rearranged for four singers and with a newly composed piano part. This latter is neither mere accompaniment nor a simple reduction of the original orchestral score, but rather a newly conceived virtuoso solo part. The selections are arranged so as to make the Songbook a complete independent piece, but for this recording we also include an outline of the plot of the underlying opera, which should help to place the individual pieces in the Songbook in their original context." The Haroun Songbook was commissioned by Works and Process at the Guggenheim and was premiered on October 13 and 14, 2002 at the Guggenheim Museum, performed by the same cast heard in this recording.