Today, an opera that the Met never produced that it should have so long ago. Treemonisha by Scott Joplin was rediscovered in 1972, the same year James Levine came to the Met, and yet the preeminent opera house in America still completely ignores this invaluable monument of American music. Is it as good as Joplin's rags? Well, no, it's a first opera, and almost a collection of rags with lyrics assembled into review show, but what rags! A very good argument could be made that Joplin is still America's greatest composer, and certainly an argument that he is the most American. Like Steven Sondheim, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, Bernard Hermann, Art Tatum, W.C. Handy, and a number of others, the majority of work by Joplin that does not straddle those fine lines between classical and popular, comedy and tragedy, sublimity and vulgarity, accessibility and demand. It is neither high nor low or middle but everybrow. It is indispensable music of America and indispensable music of the world. I've written quite a bit on Scott Joplin and perhaps I will repost that over the next week. I've timestamped the video to the beginning of the music, but if you like, go to the beginning to hear a brief pre-recording word by Joplin's great-niece, LeErma White.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrldrnv7Gy8&t=392s
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