This interview was originally recorded on April 24th, 2025.
The Oral History Project is supported by the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation.

Stanley Silverman, composer

Stanley Silverman is an award-winning composer who has enjoyed several decades in both the classical and popular music worlds, as well as in theater and film. He has collaborated with well-known pop artists and musicians such as James Taylor, Paul Simon, Sting, and Elton John. His classical compositions have been performed by Pierre Boulez and the New York Philharmonic, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Richard Stoltzman, Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A winner of the Obie, Drama Desk, Naumburg, and Koussevitky Foundation Awards, Silverman worked both on and off Broadway with stage luminaries including playwrights Richard Foreman, Arthur Miller, and Anthony Burgess and directors Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Michael Langham, and Daniel Sullivan. In 2004, Silverman was honored by the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, where he served as a founding board member for over three decades.

Transcript

Marc A. Scorca: I'm absolutely thrilled to be with you today, and thank you so much, Stanley Silverman, for joining me. I'm thrilled to somewhat overwhelmed, because you were creative in the opera space at a moment in time when American opera was just beginning to blossom in a new way. And I just want to speak to someone who is kind of a part of that big bang, and I'm so thrilled you're with us today. Thank you.

Stanley Silverman: Well, bless you; glad to be here.

Marc A. Scorca: Well, I don't spare anyone, so I always start with the same question. And that question is: who brought you to your first opera?

Stanley Silverman: My first opera was really late. Mario De Maria was a company manager for Dr. Selavy's Magic Theater - so it was late. So, the Bolshoi Opera came. I think he worked for them. So, he got me into the rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera House. First of all, all Russian repertoire. I remember The Gambler of Prokofiev, and I was muttering to myself, "Would we ever send an all-American repertoire overseas?" No.

Marc A. Scorca: Although we would today, perhaps?

Stanley Silverman: Today, yes. So, the most fun part about it is they spent about 15, 20 minutes rehearsing The Star-Spangled Banner, because in Russian, they were trying to figure out the dotted - is it like triplets or dotted eighth notes? Finally, (James) Levine showed up. He came out to sort of show how the dots sound.

Marc A. Scorca: What an incredible experience.

Stanley Silverman: So, before The Gambler (my first opera) I heard The Star-Spangled Banner played three different ways with three different dotted rhythms.

Marc A. Scorca: That's really special. And I remember when that Bolshoi tour came to the United States. As a New Yorker, I remember that well. Well, in reading through a whole wonderful file of material that we have here at OPERA America about your work, I read that your first instrument was guitar and that you concertized as a guitarist.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. I was a rare bird that I could read music very well. So, I was the guitarist, mandolin (whatever) for the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the LA Phil, so the A-list orchestras were the people that I worked for.

Marc A. Scorca: How did you get started doing that? It's wonderful to think about being with those phenomenal orchestras whenever they needed a guitar or mandolin part. How did you get started with that?

Stanley Silverman: The Boston Symphony: I taught at Tanglewood for about 10 years; that was that link. The New York Philharmonic: I was involved at Lincoln Center very heavily. I was the music director of the Repertory Theater at Lincoln Center. I don't know how I got the first call, which was (Leonard) Bernstein, and it would've been the Mahler Seventh Symphony (which) was my earliest performance thing with him. And then they would just call... By the way, during breaks, Bernstein would play 40's jazz, you know, boogie-woogie stuff. So, I would gather with him. The bass player knew...They would come over, and they knew that to relax during the breaks, Bernstein would play jazz. So I would play guitar with him.

Marc A. Scorca: It's kind of interesting to think of jazz interludes in a Mahler symphony, but that's okay.

Stanley Silverman: Well, that was instead of his cigarette break, which was probably forbidden.

Marc A. Scorca: Better to play jazz. I read as well that you always had a great interest in the theater, and that you think of yourself as a man of the theater.

Stanley Silverman: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: And here you are, a guitarist, but was the hankering for the theater just in the background? Was it something that you pursued in parallel?

Stanley Silverman: Very intentional, because I'm a big music history buff and John Dowland and Thomas Morley in Shakespeare's time. They were the lute players. But they worked with Shakespeare's company, and that sunk in right away. I didn't see it as incompatible. And when I was in graduate school, I wrote to Robert Whitehead and Elia Kazan, and the head of the Lincoln Center Theater. And I wrote to them and said, "I'd like to be the music director, write music for the plays", and I got the job.

Marc A. Scorca: Wow, just sort of outta the blue?

Stanley Silverman: Right. Well, they left, and the company was then taken over by San Francisco Actors Workshop, and I was in school in San Francisco, so they brought me with them.

Marc A. Scorca: Just incredible, absolutely incredible; you don't get what you don't ask for.

Stanley Silverman: No. I'm 23 years old and I wrote music for the plays at Lincoln Center.

Marc A. Scorca: When did composition come into your life? Because there you were, able to read music, you had studied music, you were playing the guitar. When did composition come into your life?

Stanley Silverman: Well, I started writing popular songs in high school (the Performing Arts, the Fame school). And then, I didn't major in composition, but I went to music school in Boston, (Boston U) and then Columbia. But it wasn't until graduate school with Leon Kirchner, that I studied composition very seriously - Kirchner and Darius Milhaud at Mills College. And I say to myself, by the way, "If I did not study composition, I would've written Broadway musicals, unfettered".

Marc A. Scorca: I'm gonna probe that a little bit, because that's a really interesting comment. 'Cause the fact is, that your work has completely covered the genres. I made a note to myself here, whether it is music for film, chamber ensembles, orchestras, for plays, operas, on Broadway - you just cover the gamut, compositionally, and I'm just wondering if there is something that held it all together. Of course, you're composing music, but what is it you wanted to achieve across all of these genres?

Stanley Silverman: Well, I was always interested in melody. And even in my atonal works, which could be pretty severe, I try to be melodic within that world. And I have to confess, I loved Rodgers and Hammerstein, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter. I love those people. So, I think that's the link - that there was always the attempt to line, melody, theme, even in the most severe of the works.

Marc A. Scorca: Now, you said that if you had not studied composition, you would've written nothing but Broadway shows. Tell me about that dynamic, between learning composition and your appetite for Broadway.

Stanley Silverman: Well, in composition studies, except for Milhaud, I was really introduced to atonal music. I actually live about a mile from the Schoenberg mansion. But in California at that time, what you had learned was basically more atonal music. We would study the classics, because that's what Schoenberg would teach his students, and Kirchner studied with Schoenberg. So, it would be Mozart, Haydn and Schubert. And then you were able to do your own music, but they were basically mostly interested in abstract music. And then I fell into the gang of mid-century American composers, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Kirchner, Lukas Foss...

Marc A. Scorca: Yeah. I read in an old interview that we had in the file here. You said, "My serious musical background was dominated by post World War II composers like Boulez. But I never brought that kind of work to my theater pieces. It was old atonal, and didn't seem to work".

Stanley Silverman: Yes. That's true. I'm immediately reminded of the directors just staring at me. I think it was in Yerma, where my first sketches were all atonal, and I remember the director who was a Hungarian, John Hirsch said to me, "These Spanish peasants, they wouldn't sing notes like that". That's what I meant.

Marc A. Scorca: In a way, it is the theater context of making the music somehow suit the character, suit the dramatic setting, and atonality wasn't necessarily what was called for.

Stanley Silverman: Sometimes it would work. Like I did a Richard III in Stratford, Ontario. And I used electronic music, plus live music. And that was an atonal score. And that actually worked for the same Hungarian director, but just because the plot and the world that Richard is in, is unsettled. So that was an atonal score. Also Narrow Road to the Deep North, I did atonal. I've done, without listing, about four to five atonal scores for theater.

Marc A. Scorca: Yeah. And, of course, in a particular setting, it would be completely appropriate. But again, in some of the articles, you are labeled as a proponent of avant-garde music theater.

Stanley Silverman: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: And I raise that because that probably meant something in the middle of the 1970's. And in retrospect, it might mean something else today. When you were first labeled, described as a proponent of avant-garde music theater, what did that mean to you? Did you accept that?

Stanley Silverman: Oh, definitely. Again, music history for me, I was totally fascinated by, I guess it was the 1920's, 1930's, the composers. I think that regular opera was out of reach financially, and they would do music theater works. I'm talking about Hindemith, Milhaud, Stravinsky, and that was the world (in which) I wanted to be involved. Hence Richard Foreman, who reminded me of Cocteau and the librettists of that period.

Marc A. Scorca: And I absolutely wanna ask you about Richard Foreman; I'll come to that in one second. When you look back at the label, here we are 50 years later, and the label 'Avant-Garde Music Theater' - I wonder whether people actually remember what that means, or whether that that term has the same meaning today?

Stanley Silverman: No, I think that the people that would've been involved at that time, Philip Glass, are in the main opera houses now. Part of it was also the location of the venue then, because I did about six to eight operas/operettas all off- Broadway. When I did get to work in the conventional opera house, I didn't feel at home.

Marc A. Scorca: All right. We'll talk about that. Let's get to Richard Foreman. So, you just described him as somebody who reminded you of Cocteau in a way. Who was Richard Foreman? How did you get to know him?

Stanley Silverman: Well, that was my then-wife, Mary (who) was a college classmate of Amy Taubin, who was Richard's wife. And so we were always friendly socially, and at that point, he was really writing more conventional plays. And we got the commission. I have to jump to Elephant Steps, because of all places, the Boston Symphony, the Fromm Foundation... I got a call from Harry Kraut, the director of Tanglewood (who by the way, became Bernstein's Manager) and he said, "We've just inherited another small theater, and we'd like you to write something, quote 'that would run'". Okay. So, it would premiere in the Contemporary Music Festival at Tanglewood, and then had to run. So I said, "Okay". So, I reached into my bag of my own personal musical history of showbiz songs, vaudeville, radio songs, plus opera. Then we needed a director. I asked Richard to write the text. I remember asking Mike Nichols, 'cause I was working on Little Foxes with him, and (you'll like this one), he said, "Opera? Who cares if they're coming in left or right?" But nothing for him. Then Richard said, "Well, I think I could direct it". That was his first directing job. And that was the most fantastic thing about the evening. I know we're not meant to be talking about Elephant Steps right this minute, but think of it as Richard's debut as an author, director. Our conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, a student. It was magic, just magic.

Marc A. Scorca: I did not know about Michael Tilson Thomas as the conductor of it.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. And then he got hired to be the assistant at the Boston Symphony and had this similar-to-Bernstein thing when William Steinberg - I was with him that day - got sick, and he had to go in and do an evening performance at Carnegie.

Marc A. Scorca: I was just at MTT's final performance at the New World Symphony a couple of weeks ago down in Miami. He conducted a brilliant, brilliant Beethoven Fifth Symphony. It was magnificent.

Stanley Silverman: He's the best. Besides being great fun, at that time, especially when you're writing a piece and you're sweating - to have as a colleague. But he's really like, you talk about the new world, it's really the connection to the old world. His conducting does remind me of the old masters.

Marc A. Scorca: You mentioned Elephant Steps and Alan Rich wrote in 1974, 'The piece does defy description. What it doesn't defy, however, is evaluation. It is a great lovable work'. In New York Magazine, he said 'It's the most successful piece of new musical theater in the country so far'. And the Columbia Records liner note said, 'Elephant Steps represents something new and important in the history of American theater. A truly Contemporary (capitalized) Contemporary opera. What Foreman and Silverman have achieved is a different, more contemporary way of putting operatic material together'. A true statement?

Stanley Silverman: Well, at that time, yes. I did hear it again. I think the 25th anniversary in London. It was done, whatever they call their off-Broadway. Can I tell you, the impact of the original production? Really, my memory of it is those collaborators. I mean, I'm looking around in London saying, where's Michael Tilson Thomas? Where's Richard? But the recording works. Gerald Widoff and Herbie (Herbert) Harris; Columbia Records recorded it. One of the oddest things, I don't know what it sold, and it's now back. They reissued on CD.

Marc A. Scorca: I know. I ordered it yesterday,

Stanley Silverman: But it's just when Sony had bought CBS records, and we had a Japanese gentleman who thought that, I don't know, that this is Sergeant Pepper. Sony issued it in Japan. I actually have it here. I should have brought it to hold up. There's a Japanese edition.

Marc A. Scorca: So funny. Did it run?

Stanley Silverman: The recording?

Marc A. Scorca: No, did Elephant Steps run as a (show)?

Stanley Silverman: We did it for Tanglewood. Yes, we did several performances. And you gotta remember, Tanglewood is limited. It's like a shorter season. Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: Getting back to Richard Foreman, one of the articles I found said this: 'The two' meaning you and Richard 'complement each other. It is he, Silverman, who introduced Foreman to a world beyond the theatrical avant-garde when he asked him to collaborate on Elephant Steps. It's Silverman's music too, which is perhaps more appealing and surely more accessible than Foreman's odd conceptions'. So, did you two complement one another in your work?

Stanley Silverman: Oh definitely. Again, back to my music history: my model is always Weill and Brecht, because just what you described is really their relationship. Brecht's spine was very much more severe than Weill's beautiful melodies. But I just loved that combination. And it was very intentional on my part to treat Richard's librettos melodically.

Marc A. Scorca: I did get the impression from reading all through the file, that bringing dissimilar elements together is something that really interests you as a creator.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. Now, the same time I was writing music for Shakespeare plays in Canada. So I had these two careers. Well, three actually: I had a concert music career, writing commissions, chamber music. But there'd be, as you say, the avant-garde New York downtown work. And then the classical Shakespeare works with great directors, Michael Langham, John Hirsch. Great designers. And I always saw myself gravitating towards the designers, as inspiration. 'Cause it was Hammerstein that said an orchestrator should play the clothing. So I always worked close to the designers, but there were definitely two separate careers.

Marc A. Scorca: And there is one quote, I don't have it here, where you talked about, when you were doing incidental music - and we'll talk more about that in a minute - that sometimes you would work even against the text; that you liked finding the counter-melody, the counter-theme. Again, disparate parts rubbing against one another.

Stanley Silverman: Yes, for sure. Again, that's part of my training. It's the old Eskimo saying, "What's a what's known?" So, yes. I'll find something. For example, if it's a love scene and there's something odd in the furniture or the setting, I'll play that.

Marc A. Scorca: Now with Richard, with whom you partnered and had this great collaboration, and then you've named so many others. You've just named Mike Nichols, but I know of course you worked with James Taylor, Paul Simon, Sting, with great directors up at Stratford. What makes a good creative partnership?

Stanley Silverman: Well, it's on the page. Richard, (who) just passed about a month ago, but his reputation mostly as a theater maker, you know, designer, director, lighting, did it all. But what people don't know is that the first thing on the page is written stuff, which I always responded to. I always thought he was a great writer. And actually, we've posted on YouTube a lot of the live performances - very beautiful, poetic, actually warm lyrics, some very funny, hysterical. So, to answer your question, it was my response to his written word.

Marc A. Scorca: When you are collaborating - sometimes I hear a composer say in an interview, "I loved her libretto, and I just took it and I set it". And I wanna say, "Didn't you argue a little bit about it?

Stanley Silverman: I would question, because Richard, he could be pretty weird. And actually, I think it was Carman Moore in The Village Voice, once accused me of making Richard accessible. But it's true. I would ask him - like if something seemed too obscure to me, I'd say, "What am I doing here? What is this?" And typical answers of Richard, he said, "Okay, this takes place in an island off Brazil with an astronomer as the lead". And I'd say, "Okay, I know where I am". But not in the text. Do you know what I'm saying?

Marc A. Scorca: And questions and probing within it. So your first opera for an opera house was Madame Adare.

Stanley Silverman: Oh boy.

Marc A. Scorca: And I remember early on in my career in opera knowing about Madame Adare. You said "It was critically our biggest flop". You said further, "I wanted to create almost a comic-Schoenberg type of opera". In The New York Times, you were quoted as saying, (from 1980) "At City Opera, (quote) 'they told us they wanted the audience to know whether to laugh or cry'", (like, help us know in this piece, should they be laughing or crying?) 'And Richard said, "Okay, we'll compromise. We'll do a piece where we'll be laughing and crying at the same time"'. So what happened with Madame Adare?

Stanley Silverman: Well, I think that that actually speaks to my resentment of deadlines. And if I had to, to this day say what went wrong, it was the deadline. But there were two issues. Elephant Steps was actually a long one act, and there was always a piece before it at Tanglewood. I remember once it was the Liebslieder Waltzes of Brahms. But the other one was the Schoenberg, forgive my German, Die glückliche Hand. It was a monodrama and (Erich) Leinsdorf conducted it, and it was this incredibly moving atonal monodrama. It was just great. And when the reviews for Elephant Steps came out, it dismissed it. It just said, "The program started with the Schoenberg", and that bothered me. So I decided to use the occasion - this was really perverse (at City Opera of all places) to write a Schoenberg opera. I said, "I'll show them".

Marc A. Scorca: I love it. And of course, at that point in time, working with Beverly Sills, who was the head of the company in 1980. She had just begun as general director. But, you know, City Opera had such a rich history of American opera.

Stanley Silverman: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: Early on, in the sixties, those great seasons.

Stanley Silverman: That actually predates my Russian opera story, because my college jazz band won a competition, and we played at the Brussels Fair in 1958, and City Opera had sent over Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, with Phyllis Curtin, and I saw that. They also sent over Carousel.

Marc A. Scorca: The company had this experience with doing new opera, but somehow Madame Adare - they wanted it to be, I guess, clear and simple as opposed to more complicated.

Stanley Silverman: Well, I think the atonal language was not at home in that house. And I think poor Kirchner, he did Henderson, the Rain King there, and it also flopped. I think Charles Wuorinen got commissioned for the cowboy opera, (Brokeback Mountain) and he ended up doing it in Spain because...

Marc A. Scorca: Charles Wuorinen, another composer of the avant-garde language.

Stanley Silverman: Yes.

Marc A. Scorca: Now, you talked about deadlines, and I know that even today, opera companies plan seasons years ahead. This is the opening night. You have a week in the house to tech the show. These are your staging rehearsals, and there is a disconnect between the creative, generative process and making sure new work is ready. So I hear you saying that the opera house machine sometimes for you, gets in the way of a success at an opera.

Stanley Silverman: But that's true in the movies, also. It's one reason that I really voluntarily stopped working in films, because the producer of the film would come in and say, "Okay, our opening date is..." So it's the same story you're describing. And that's why my most recent life has been chamber music. And basically I take all the time in the world and say "It's ready".

Marc A. Scorca: And of course, a number of your pieces developed by Music-Theater Group, founded by Lyn Austin, whom I had the tremendous honor of knowing and respecting, Africanus Instructus, Black Sea Follies, and other of your work - a very different setup for doing a new opera.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. And I think that would cover a lot of your questions. It's also a financial issue. It was well funded, and we had all the rehearsal time in the world, and we didn't have to sell 3,000 seats. There's more like 200, 300. By the way, I directed an opera for them. I did Mother of Us All.

Marc A. Scorca: Which I saw.

Stanley Silverman: Oh wow.

Marc A. Scorca: Absolutely. Early on in my career, I saw that up in the Berkshires.

Stanley Silverman: Right. And then we did in New York at St. Clement's.

Marc A. Scorca: How wonderful. And of course, Lyn Austin was just such a pioneer.

Stanley Silverman: Oh, she was great. She was great.

Marc A. Scorca: Because the American opera scene at that time, it was steeped in the inherited repertoire. There wasn't much space for new work or experimental work at the time, was there?

Stanley Silverman: Yeah. Well, during the time with Lyn, which, I think, ended for me around 1990, there was the beginning of Philip Glass's work being done. It was just before John Adams. But in other words, there was a way in now to the big houses. Again, the language was tonal.

Marc A. Scorca: And there you are in Los Angeles, where you have, of course, LA Opera doing such fine work, and Beth Morrison Projects performing there, and Long Beach Opera for years doing such interesting work. I guess you've seen the avant-garde become more mainstream?

Stanley Silverman: Yes. There's REDCAT; it's CalArts. Again, small audiences, but it's hard, the line between music and music theater. They'd be like small ensembles with singers and dancers, you know.

Marc A. Scorca: It was interesting, you said in an interview in Playbill in 2018, and this was an article about writing incidental music, whether it's incidental music for plays or movies - you said, "It supports the psychology of what's going on, on stage, what isn't being said. If love is about to burst out, but they're still being coy, you've gotta basically turn the furnace on and warm it up. It's sort of integrating the inner feelings of the characters". Now, you said that about incidental music, but doesn't that describe opera too?

Stanley Silverman: Yes. Again, the difference with incidental music and opera - it's laid out in front of you. You've seen the actors. In the film, you've seen the moment. Like again, from the printed page, it's hard to dictate. Well, I suppose a good opera composer does, but I don't consider myself a conventional opera composer, that would look at a play libretto, and say, "I'm gonna turn up the furnace". It wouldn't occur to me in the text.

Marc A. Scorca: And you wrote an article for The New York Times in 1969, and this is so funny: 1969, and if we think about it, we're landing a rocket ship on the moon, and Nixon was president, and the Vietnam War was raging on. But you said in 1969, "The arts today, just as society, are extremely fragmented". This is 1969. "During periods of social upheaval, many artists attempt to bridge the gap between advanced art and popular taste. This is true after World War I, when composers such as Stravinsky, Milhaud, Weill, Hindemith, Copeland utilized popular music in their works. The attempted amalgamation between serious and popular elements has been a continual and natural part of music history in general". And I guess that really does describe a lot of your approach to your work over the years.

Stanley Silverman: Totally. I didn't mean it to sound like an apology, but I think except for Bill (William) Bolcom, I don't know anybody else that was sort of doing what we were doing, which is actually the integration of more pop music. And again, I can't speak of his background, even though we both studied with Milhaud, but I grew up going to nightclubs for my birthday. Popular entertainment was very important to me. To me, a birthday gift for my father would be seeing Louis Prima at the Latin Quarter. Hence working with Sting, James Taylor, Paul Simon. I remember asking myself, "What is it about them? What's the magic?" And my then-wife Martha said, "It's called 'setup'. It's what makes a violinist like (Nathan) Milstein or (David) Oistrakh have the right flesh on the right fingers. It's just a setup. A gift from there". (Points upwards).

Marc A. Scorca: Of course, the connection to the audience with that approach is perhaps more direct than a purely intellectual or academic approach to composition.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. Well also, getting back to opera, I can't think of arias or sections where the libretto is as moving as, say Sting's Fragile, which is just round and round and round. 'The tears may flow, like...' There's no time to study the libretto when you're hearing it as a audience member.

Marc A. Scorca: So, young people must want your advice. Is there a core to the advice you give to aspiring composers today?

Stanley Silverman: Well, it would always be to surround yourself with collaborators of similar mind. For example. I would always say to film writers, "Find a director in college, because one of the two of you'll make it". I think the same with operas, to really befriend yourself with directors, you know? I dunno what else to say, because unless it's a finished piece and you're prepared to play it brilliantly on the piano, like a Bernstein or a Gershwin - how you present the idea, you know. I think with Peter Gelb, he's much more receptive to process and to new ideas.

Marc A. Scorca: Are you happy with the progress of the opera scene, as you know it?

Stanley Silverman: Well, I have different tastes, but someone, like Missy Mazzoli and Julia Wolfe: the young ladies really interest me. Again, I come from a world when my own work has humor and it's a little odd, a little off the wall. I don't hear that; they seem to be more honest and real, for lack of a better word. Not that I'm afraid of those words, but I don't do that. So the answer is yeah. And Nico Muhly. So I'm interested in their work as the work they do, but it's nothing that I would do. Anthony Burgess once said to me - I think it was about Love Story, about Erich Segal - "I'm not jealous of the work, I'm jealous of the money".

Marc A. Scorca: Are you still composing Chamber Music?

Stanley Silverman: Yes, I'm pleased to say. My last album, which came out last year, had 1,115,000 listeners.

Marc A. Scorca: What kinds of ensembles are you writing for these days?

Stanley Silverman: That's the thing: I always worked with the absolute best. The Kalichstein–Laredo–Robinson Trio. Poor Kalichstein died during it, as well as the producing engineer Adam Abeshouse. But Sting is on that album. I wrote a song in the middle of the piano trio. It may account for why there's so many listeners.

Marc A. Scorca: And if someone approached you today about another music theater piece, would they capture your attention?

Stanley Silverman: My original answer would be why I'm in chamber music, (and it) is "Where's the funding?" I don't mean to pay me.

Marc A. Scorca: Right, right. To produce it.

Stanley Silverman: To produce it. Yes. So Music-Theatre Group, I mean, Diane Wondisford stayed on for a bit, and I think was able to fund workshops and maybe commissions, but the big days, (when) I got Joe (Joseph) Papp, you know, our angels. So, my answer is, without these angels, I don't see doing it. Even though I've got some foreign offers - England. Again, I find that they don't have the funds for the long rehearsal period.

Marc A. Scorca: Yeah. Which the new work needs, because it does take shape, in part, in the rehearsal hall.

Stanley Silverman: Yes. I think André Bishop and Peter Gelb were doing some kind of collaboration, and maybe Missy's piece came outta that, I don't know. They got it. They know what to do. I know those people, but I'm enjoying my life here, a mile away from Schoenberg. Ocean Avenue, where I live, is where Barbie was filmed.

Marc A. Scorca: Oh, really?

Stanley Silverman: Life is good, Marc.

Marc A. Scorca: I'm really happy to hear that. And you've just been such a force. And again, when I began my career, your name Madam Adare, and then of course, Lyn Austin, Music-Theatre Group, seeing your work as a stage director there, I'm so honored to have this time with you to talk and to just capture some of your memories of our industry and your advice for the field. I'm really grateful, Stanley. Thanks for everything you've done, and I just can't wait to get some more CDs and listen to some more of your work.

Stanley Silverman: We put stuff on out of Australia, believe it or not. We put stuff on YouTube. I would recommend Hotel for Criminals.

Marc A. Scorca: I, of course, read about it in preparing for our talk today, but I don't know it at all.

Stanley Silverman: My favorite of the ones we did.

Marc A. Scorca: Why is it your favorite?

Stanley Silverman: It's combined the melodic with the atonal with humor. Very funny. I think we posted the whole thing with the text, probably? But to quote my daughter - NYU graduate opera department did it about 10 years ago. I took my daughter and she said, "Oh, this is when Richard had a sense of humor".

Marc A. Scorca: And that's on YouTube from a production in Australia?

Stanley Silverman: No. The Australian posted the original recordings we have, but live.

Marc A. Scorca: Well, again, Stanley, thank you. Thank you for this time.