Darkling CD Video Feature in Encore Magazine, January 2012.
     CLICK HERE TO VIEW

The Juillard Journal (CD Review), Bruce Hodges:
     Just when you think you've heard every angle possible on the Holocaust,
     along comes Stefan Weisman's chamber opera Darkling to gently—yet
     forcefully—illuminate another sorrowful corner... Thomas Hardy's poem "The
     Darkling Thrush" was the inspiration for Anna Rabinowitz, who used it to
     create a lengthy poem about a girl named Anna who has discovered a trove
     of memorabilia—letters and photographs from those who perished. The opera,
     which has no plot per se, describes what she found. Weisman draws on a
     version of the Hardy poem from composer Lee Hoiby (who, like Weisman,
     was comissioned by American Opera Projects), and uses Hoiby's song as a
     jumping-off point for the delicate and eclectic language he employs to tie
     together Rabinowitz's powerful fragments. Four excellent singers are
     supplemented by 16 spoken voices and a string quartet... Even though other
     artists have confronted us with countless examples of such dispassion, the
     effect here is unnerving. The opera ends with descriptions—not for the
     squeamish—of some of the horrors inflicted, each folloed by the Hebrew word
     dayenu, which means "it would have been enough for us." This is a chilling
     reference to text recited at the Passover Seder, which praises God for his
     blessings and miracles. As Anna closes the box, the music disappears and she
     utters the work's final though: "And I was unaware." Judith Sherman and
     Jeanne Velonis recorded the musical portions at the American Academy of
     Arts and Letters, with a slight emphasis on Raman Ramakrishnan's cello,
     which runs like a melancholy thread through the musical fabric. The spoken
     dialogue, captured by Tom Hamilton at New York's Merlin Studios, combines
     to create the vivid lamentation.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Time Out New York (**** Four Star CD Review), Alan Lockwood:
     Stacked with conflicting themes and textured with vocal and string-quartet
     sequences that smolder and gleam, Darkling is a scuffed, allusive musical
     palimpsest...Anna Rabinowitz culled the libretto from her book-length poem;
     with Stefan Weisman's taut, dexterous  score and a bold staging by
     American Opera Projects, Darkling played to acclaim in 2006. A lusterous
     middle register runs from the prologue's cello theme through the singing of
     mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn...Bass-baritone Mark Uhlemann is forceful in
     "Salvage of Coats," with Tom Chiu bowing overtone shards...Voces hover and
     parry, set in communal intimacy like radio drama, with Weisman's arias
     providing both tension and release..."The mind is its own place," the narrator,
     Anna, intones, and Darkling is a deeply mindful work.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The Examiner (***** Five Star CD Review), Tina Molly Lang:
     The minimalist string quartet introduction set the dark tone of the opera.
     There are several other instances where the composer makes effective use of
     a minimalist texture. For example, on track 8 of the first disc, the high A in
     the violin seems to simply echo the mezzo-soprano who sings, "they will not
     ask me why..." And on track 3 of the second disc, the strings create a mood
     while the singers describe "a pen's breathprint." Yet the score also has
     passages of lush melodies and folk tunes, as seen in tracks 4 and 5 of disc 1
     ("scattershot clips" followed by a flashback of the wedding)... This CD is not
     easy listening, as the subject matter is quite heavy. There is no cohesive plot
     (though that only further illustrates the problem of memory). This is a
     weighty work that yields deeper meaning upon multiple listenings.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Nouspique (CD Review), David Barker:
     In Darkling (the opera) Stefan Weisman has remained true to the
     progressions found in the poem. He preserves the fragmented "showbox" of
     images through spoken work sections in which a variety of speakers
     fragments the text... A small ensemble (string quartet and four vocalists)
     reinforces the sense of intimacy... Something more grandiose, the story, say,
     of the whole Jewish people, would bury Darkling's interior struggle. And so
     the setting is spare... Although the score is challenging, that does not mean
     it is inaccessible. In particular, I was moved by the final extended Dayenu...
     Darkling is a challenging work. Make whatever effort it demands of you. It
     will reward you well.
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New Music Box (CD Review), Alexandra Gardner:
     Darkling packs a punch even though served in a relatively small container...
     Layers of spoken word, singing, and the occasional chunk of archival audio
     are intertwined with a supporting bed of string quartet music that makes for
     an intimate listening experience... This 2-CD incarnation of Darkling is a
     compelling listen—the texts are given carefully nuanced deliveries by a cast
     of rich voices perfectly suited to storytelling... It would be fascinating to
     experience a live production, to discover how the many layers and fragments
     are handled in three dimensions. However, this aural version of Darkling is
     beautifully recorded, strongly conveying the feeling of a radio play.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Theatermania (CD Review), Andy Propst:
     Stick with this two-disc recording and allow Stefan Weisman's haunting score
     for strings to wash over you... You may be taken off guard by the surprisingly
     powerful cumulative effect of the words and music.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Audiophile Audition (CD Review), Steven Ritter:
     An intense, passionate work ... clever and highly inventive, very personal
     music... Performances and sound are first class.

New York Times, Anthony Tommasini:
     With a cast of 13 singers and actors, the Flux String Quartet and many taped
     elements of speech and sound, Darkling combines musical theater, opera,
     movement, pantomime, lighting effects, video projections and language...Mr.
     Weisman's score...is personal, moody and skillfully wrought.  There are
     echoes of Shostakovich, somber Minimalist riffs, ruminative hints of Jewish
     folk music and a poignant aria for the young bride (the mezzo-soprano Hai-
     Ting Chinn).  The score is most compelling when the composer takes risks,
     the harmonic language becomes astringent and a raw, fitful quality erupts.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Opera Now, Heidi Waleson:
     Stefan Weisman's instrumental score, played by the Flux Quartet, had the
     bleak urgency of Shostakovich crossed with Jewish liturgical idioms…The
     power of Darkling is in its sophisticated execution; but it is an exercise of
     remembrance above all.

The Poetry Foundation, John Freeman:
     For a long time, poetic opera was the zipper boot of American arts and
     letters—an embarrassing reminder that poetry, like footwear, once thought it
     could be two things at once. But that ’70s feeling appears to be coming
     back: Dana Gioia, Anne Carson, and Glyn Maxwell have all written librettos
     of late.  None of these works, however, approach the ambition of American
     Opera Projects’ recent adaptation of Anna Rabinowitz’s 2001 volume,
     Darkling…To continue the footwear metaphor, this is a Reebok bump with a
     GPS device attached to the laces…At one point the story is told with the
     conventions of an old black-and-white movie…But just when we become
     wedded to this narrative...it fractures and elegantly reassembles itself…Out
     of this fog emerges the performance’s powerful portrayal of the march to
     the Final Solution…[The baritone] aria…about wearing the nightmare of this
     horror like an insufficient coat during the cold, is worth the price of
     admission and then some.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Opera Today, Megan Jenkins: 
     Recently at the East Thirteenth Street Theatre AOP presented Darkling, a
     new opera that is so multi-layered it defies description…In 80 minutes of
     intense visual and aural stimulation, Darkling achieves moments of powerful
     emotion.  At times I felt moved to tears…Bravo to AOP for supporting such a
     controversial and ultimately important work, and to the creative minds that
     fitted it all together in a thought-provoking way.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Sequenza21, Jeffrey Sackmann:
     Excellent and thought-provoking, especially in [its] implications for the opera
     form...Weisman's text-setting was skillful, and I suspect a second listening
     would reveal much more in it.

Gothamist.com (DARKLING is the "Pick of the Week"), Mallory Jensen:
     The Gothamist pick of the week is Darkling...It sounds dark, complicated,
     and intense, and we suspect that regardless of your level of interest in
     either theater or opera, you'll be stunned by it, in a good way.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

TheaterScene.net, Tuomas Hil:
     [Conductor Brian] DeMaris's skillful phrasing supported the singers and quite
     miraculously he managed to conquer the dry accoustics of the black box
     theater. Tenor Jon Garrison delivered one of the highlights of the evening
     with gloriously voice effortlessly filling the space...Hai-Ting Chinn's mezzo-
     soprano was enchanting...The internal structure of the piece suggested a
     staged oratory and the production designs were there to support that
     approach...
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The Jewish Week, George Robinson:
     More than most operas...Darkling is a total theater experience, with not only
     music and singing but also video, projected images and text—an attempt to
     find a way to gather and save [the Holocaust's] shards and fragments.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

City Paper Philadelphia, Steve Cohen:
     Impressively played and sung by superb performers...Darkling, composed by
     Stefan Weisman, has beautiful, accessible writing for string quartet and a
     vocal quartet.

Broad Street Review, Steve Cohen:
     Stefan Weisman’s music is modernistic yet accessible...In this story about a
     Polish Jewish family during the Holocaust, Weisman uses a...somber pallet.
     There’s much variety in this music, as Weisman varies meters and tempi. He
     also blends the vocalists exquisitely with the string players. Some eight-part
     harmonies are very attractive and I’d love to hear the music again...
     Outstanding singing and playing...Soprano Maeve Höglund, mezzo Hai-Ting
     Chinn, tenor Jon Garrison and bass Martin Hargrove are the excellent quartet
     in Darkling. The soprano and the baritone, especially, make the most of
     great solo opportunities...Andrew Kurtz, artistic director of the company,
     conducts with precision and feeling.

Opera News, "Risky Business," an article about American Opera Projects:
     "Our largest audience was probably for Darkling," answers Charles Jarden
     [the executive director of American Opera Projects].  "Darkling, music by
     Stefan Weisman and Lee Hoiby, from a poem by Anna Rabinowitz, ran for
     sixteen performances at an off-Broadway theater before we took it to NYU's
     Skirball Center and then on tour to Germany and Poland. So maybe 10,000
     people saw it, in sum."
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Click here to listen to 10/21/08 interview with Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" programme

Bloomberg News, Warwick Thompson:
     Fade is a 25 minute piece by American composer Stefan Weisman, with a
     libretto by David Cote.  In it, wealthy New Yorkers Gertrude and Albert enter
     their modern new house in the country, only to find that it cannot heal the
     problems in their relationship.  Weisman's music is lyrical in a Philip-Glass-
     meets-John Adams vein, and he has an ear for a gracious melody.

The Stage, Edward Bhesania:
     Second Movement is a young opera company that stages rarely-heard,
     small-scale operas in often unusual venues - its fifth production is a neatly
     programmed all-American triple bill, featuring a world premiere by composer
     Stefan Weisman...to a libretto by American writer David Cote. A young
     couple, Albert and Gertrude, arrive in their new house as their new
     Housekeeper unpacks, and bickering ensues (perhaps tempered by the
     Housekeeper’s presence) after Gertrude discovers the place is less than fully
     eco-friendly - “Half sun, half grid. It’s a hybrid,” enthuses Albert.  Albert’s
     attachment to the material world is poignantly emphasised in Gertrude’s
     ravishing, almost Straussian aria, in which she reminisces while admiring
     the sun’s reflection on the lake...the vocal music is sympathetically written
     for the voices, and Jane Harrington’s Gertrude, David Butt Philip’s Albert
     and Hannah Pedley’s Housekeeper all deliver fine performances.

Opera, Peter Reed:
     Fade involves [a] young couple. Gertie and Albert have just moved into their
     lovely summer home, built on what’s left of Gertie’s grandmother’s estate. A
     mysterious Housekeeper is unpacking. Weisman has crammed anxieties
     about terrorism and the environment, a Chekhovian dwelling on the ghosts
     of the past and the fragile beauties of nature into a short piece...The music
     aims at an ecstatic, John Adams-style, heightened reality, and at times it
     approached a disquiet and supernatural ambiguity reminiscent of the film
     The Others.

Metro, Warwick Thomson:
     I sometimes think of opera in London as a huge ocean liner...and Second
     Movement is the engine room, the place which constantly generates
     excitement, heat and the roar of creation...For real cutting edge excitement
     you can't beat a world premiere.  Fade, the first opera to be commissioned
     by the company, tells the story of a newly built eco-house going horribly
     wrong.  The music is by young New Yorker Stefan Weisman, and the libretto
     by theatre critic David Cote.

Opera Now, Michael White:
     Glimpses of the sterile lives and straining hearts that are the truth behind
     the Good Life in America, this...was a smart idea from a sassy, new, and
     evidently well-connected little company called Second Movement...The
     score consisted of largely instrumental texture underlying conversational
     exchange. The conversation was between a married couple and their maid
     as they moved into a new house and, by implication, into the downward
     spiral of their relationship...You have to applaud Second Movement for
     their enterprise in taking on a new work...Overall, there was a good feel
     about this young company: an energy, a sense of self-belief and keen
     ambition. And whatever its rough-edges musically, it had panache. The
     DNA of something special in the making.

BBC Radio, Sean Rafferty:
     It’s a tale of everyday American life, goodness knows that can be turbulent
     enough in these times…The piece is set in a new eco-house, but it’s an age-
     old conflict.  It’s a couple who with time on their hands realize they haven’t
     as much in common as they might have…It’s the American dream gone
     wrong…But it’s very melodic, and it’s very approachable. 

Broad Street Review, Steve Cohen:
     Center City Opera Theatre is performing an estimable service by giving public
     stage performances of new operas–taking embryonic works from page to
     stage, as artistic director Andrew Kurtz puts it...Kurtz and a committee sifted
     through a hundred scores that were submitted for consideration, and three
     were rehearsed and presented...Fade had attractive music with softer
     contours, leaning towards French impressionism.  If you’re in a
     complimentary mood, you could say it was mesmerizing...David Cote wrote
     a libretto that I’d like to re-read at leisure.  Stefan Weisman composed the
     music, which I might like to hear as an instrumental suite.

The Dressing (Scene4 Magazine), Karren LaLonde Alenier:
     David Cote's libretto is worth reading on its own...In Fade, the state-of-the-
     art house doesn't match up to the wife's principles for a "green" house or to
     her memories of what the former house belonging to her grandmother
     meant to her in terms of family relationships. More and more, technological
     advances interfere with human relationships.

Scene4 Magazine, Maxine Kern:
     This realistically depicted story achieves larger dimension when dreams are
     sung by Gertie, the wife (soprano Amy van Roekel), and Albert, the husband
     (Jonathan Hays), and countered by cautionary musical inflection in the
     singing of the housekeeper (mezzo Pamela Stein) who sees the flaws of this
     anachronistic edifice and wants only to get home as soon as possible.

     The character of the music changes as the three people realize their
     positions and come to terms with the house itself...At first the housekeeper
     sings with rich, carefully chosen words and she is addressed with sweeping
     romantic dialogue, mostly expressed by Jonathan Hays as Albert, with his
     strong and flowing baritone. The dialogue itself creates suspense
     immediately, questioning everything. What is the housekeeper's name?
     What is in the boxes that are collected in the house? Are there still ghosts
     here from the old house that has replaced the new? The housekeeper, a
     young woman alone with two children, muses about whether she would like
     to live in a big house like this one miles from town and tucked into the
     woods.

     For a short while, humor surfaces in the face of suspense and questioning as
     the wife grounds the conversation in contemporary concerns about eco-
     friendly values, which get short shrift in this outsized mansion...The music
     does a fine job of pacing the delivery of these arguments in overlapping and
     ongoing dialogue. When the subtext between the couple overwhelms them
     into dismay, the music fills in for deliberate gaps in their singing.  As such
     the music continues the original building of suspense, this time by indicating
     an underlying emotional tension, which chokes up their dialogue.

     After that, the dialogue and the music allow for arias and contrasting sounds
     and rhythms.  The wife's arias are sweet, romantic and soaring, taking on a
     Straussian quality; the husband's, perfunctory yet strong. The suspense is
     diminished, even as lights in the house go out. At this point, the composition
     tries to regain its original storyline about what will happen, yet also reflecting
     the fading of the couple's energy and their mutual but discordant
     disappointment.

New York Times (12/23/07 - Year End Retrospective), Allan Kozinn:
     "The Sound of the New Is Heard All Over"  New music is always plentiful in
     New York, if you look beyond the New York Philharmonic and the two big
     opera companies...Bang on a Can’s annual People’s Commissioning Fund
     concert in March...offered works by Stefan Weisman, Lukas Ligeti and Joshua
     Penman that touched on everything from Pink Floyd trippiness to Latin and
     African drumming.
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

New York Times (03/03/07 - Concert Review), Allan Kozinn:
     Mr. Weisman’s Restless Legs...is built around a harmonically all but static
     ostinato in the piano, bass, cello and percussion, against which Mark
     Stewart’s electric guitar line had a trippy, embryonic Pink Floyd quality at
     first, and eventually seemed to glance at Carlos Santana’s Latin-jazz
     synthesis, and toward the end at the atmospheric style of the Norwegian jazz
     guitarist Terje Rypdal. There was a whole lotta fusion going on...
     CLICK HERE TO READ MORE