The imaginative eclecticism of Elliot Goldenthal, the composer whose works have been heard by concert, theater, and movie audiences, is likely to be explored further on the Broadway scene in the immediate years ahead.
For the moment, a provocative taste of Goldenthal's broad-ranging approach to the musical theater can be heard in a new DRG Records album featuring the original music he penned, including several songs, for the Carlo Gozzi comic fable The Green Bird, which was presented in New York and La Jolla, Calif., in 1995 and 1996 under the direction of Julie Taymor, best known for her work on The Lion King.
The Goldenthal-Taymor association goes back to 1988, when he created incidental music for Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass. That spawned a rewrite that opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York, with accolades that later included five Tony Award nominations for best musical and best original score. Musical theater projects not associated with Taymor include a 1985 Norman Lear-produced musical, Liberty's Taken, and 1986's Transposed Heads, a musical based on Thomas Mann's novella.
As part of a prolific career as a soundtrack composer, Goldenthal wrote the music for Taymor's film production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus starring Hopkins and Jessica Lange and released on Sony Classical. He has also written incidental music for theatrical productions of other Shakespeare plays, such as The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
For Hollywood, Goldenthal's projects have included the soundtrack music for major efforts such as two Batman features, “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin”; “Interview with the Vampire”; “Michael Collins”; “Drugstore Cowboy”; and “A Time To Kill.”
For his upcoming Broadway project with Taymor, Goldenthal will only declare that “it will be something major” and will be presented “within a year.” He adds that he and Taymor will figure in several other Broadway concepts in which their supporters have given them “carte blanche” to work on projects.
Goldenthal, a 45-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., native who lives in New York, where he composes most of his film scores (which are often recorded in London) says that his eclecticism has firm roots in his most-admired composers. They include Aaron Copland and John Corigliano – he studied music with both – and Leonard Bernstein.
“Bernstein was an eclectic Broadway composer,” says Goldenthal. “Just look at West Side Story. He had so much diversity. He could write with salsa, black, and cool jazz influences.”
Goldenthal's varied musical gifts, which also extend to ballet works, have a more concrete Bernstein connection, too. In 1988, he was commissioned by ASCAP to write a piece in honor of the late musical giant's 70th birthday.