Pasa Tempos

New albums from Marc Blitzstein and Kikagku Moto

Marc Blitzstein’s opera The Cradle Will Rock, about workers’ struggles against capitalist fat cats, was so politically potent that authorities shut it down in the run-up to its opening night in 1937. Its director, Orson Welles, marched his cast and audience to another theater and secreted his soloists among the spectators, mounting a premiere that lives on as a historic night of American theatre. Last summer, Opera Saratoga in upstate New York gave the work’s first complete staging, and Bridge Records has now released a cast recording that bristles with fearless commitment. Greed, hypocrisy, threats against the press, demolished legal protections — they’re all here. Eight passing decades have not dulled this protest opera, which both parallels our current national malaise and does not. Whereas Blitzstein and his circle were certain that labor unions were the bulwark against corporate and governmental abuse, unions are now a shadow of what they were, and many union members support policies that undermine their own well-being. In any case, this rousing rendition, conducted by John Mauceri and boasting a strong cast headed by Ginger Costa-Jackson (as Moll, who sings a moving “Nickel Under the Foot”) will get your adrenaline flowing. A 14-minute archival interview in which Blitzstein recalls the circumstances of the opening night is itself worth the cost of this set. — James M. Keller