Composed by longtime Elvis Costello keyboardist Steve Nieve and set to a surreally episodic, multilingual libretto by his life partner, Muriel Teodori, this singspiel/dramatic oratorio describes the obsessive passion of an opera-loving steelworker of Greek extraction (Sting) for a diva (Barbara Bonney), a not-unheard-of situation in either real or reel life. Although Dionysos (the hero) seems to hover on the edge of becoming a textbook psycho-stalker (the cover photo of a hard-hat kissing his saw does little to dispel this impression), all ends well, if unbelievably. Blue-collar boy not only narrowly avoids incarceration (Elvis Costello appears as a police officer) but even gets next to the ermine-collar girl. Scored for string quartet with piano and reed improvisations, the work's avowed raison d'être was to allow voices from various backgrounds, classically trained and otherwise, to encounter one another on a level playing field. This might have been more successful if the singers were better matched in terms of texture and production. As it is, the sopranos soar effortlessly, allowing the music to do the work, while the male pop stars take the opposite approach, working up a sweat at the drop of an emotion. Musically, despite arresting juxtapositions between conventionally melodic power-pop and 20th-century atonality--to say nothing of a blazing concluding "yes" sung by all involved--the composition comes across more as a study in parallels rather than a unifying force. But even so, the point does get across, and so ambitious and heartfelt an adventure is always worth checking out.

1. Prologue Of Dionysos
2. Song Of the Ghost Of Carmen
3. Medley: Grand Grand Freedom
A) Dust And Contempt
B) Grand Grand Freedom
C) We Are the Workers
4. Unfailing Welcome To the Voice
5. Song Of the Ghost Of Butterfly
6. Song Of the Ghost Of Norma
7. To Be Is Strong
8. Perfume Song
9. The Desire Of Dionysos
10. Troublemaker
11. Don't Touch Him
12. Distanciation
13. Happiness?
14. Despair
15. The Unlikely Duet

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MGB3DU/?tag=imwan-20

I was able to score Steve Nieve autographs two of the last 3 times
that the Impostors played Atlanta. What are the chances
they would tour on such an album? Almost none, I suspect.
Steve is brilliant though . . . very underrated. Check out his solos on Costello's work.