Mike Reid Applies His Talents To The World Of Opera
The only current connection between opera and football would seem to be that some of the great male operatic singers physically resemble All-Pro linemen - but there will be a closer connection beginning next month.
Onetime Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro defensive end Mike Reid, now one of the finest songwriters in Nashville, has teamed with a New York librettist to create “Different Fields,” a one-act musical drama based on Reid’s observations of the pressures of the limelight on professional athletes. The production runs Feb. 7-18 at New York’s New Victory Theater and also will be performed April 25-28 in Memphis, and May 24-25 in Nashville.
Reid’s collaborator, Sarah Schlesinger, is the faculty lyricist-librettist of the Graduate Musical Theater writing program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She says that working with Reid “and having my words set to his extraordinary music has been incredibly rewarding for me as a librettist.
“Mike and I feel that opera is the most powerful medium of expression available to a composer and lyricist,” she adds. “We were excited to have this chance to create an opera about one of the most essential issues in contemporary American life - the loss of heroes. We’re hoping that Mike’s personal history as an NFL player will give the piece a special validity with family audiences.”
Reid, who first worked with Schlesinger in 1995 on “The Ballad of Little Jo” for the Harold Prince Musical Theater Workshop in New York, says he feels that “lessons can be drawn from this piece by people of all ages.
“The basic premise is, ‘Watch out who you idolize.”’ He adds that it is “rare to find someone whose vision matches yours and with whom you can work so closely.” His work with Schlesinger “is the beginning of a lifelong partnership.”
Twain album at 4 million
Shania Twain, whose “The Woman in Me” album was certified a 4 million-seller just 10 months after its release (making it the fastest such certified album by a woman in country music history), has just seen both the album and her hit single “Any Man of Mine” nominated for Grammys.
Still without having performed a single concert in support of “The Woman in Me,” Twain has become a history-making country female. Her album stayed atop the Billboard Top Country Album chart for an unprecedented (for a female) 11 weeks and in the Top 10 of the Billboard pop Top 200 chart for 15 weeks.
The only other albums by country females to top the 4 million sales plateau are Patsy Cline’s “Greatest Hits,” Wynonna Judd’s “Wynonna,” Reba McEntire’s “Greatest Hits Volume II” and Anne Murray’s “Greatest Hits.”
Rockers join Anderson
John Anderson is joined by Levon Helm of The Band and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits on his forthcoming (Jan. 30) album, “Paradise.”
In addition to the new album, Anderson is gearing up other new ventures for 1996. These include his Seminole Wind Trading Co., an upscale western clothing store on the public square in Smithville, Tenn., and a soon-to-come John Anderson’s Country Barbecue & Steak House on nearby Center Hill Lake.