This 1992 joint opera commission from The Met. and The Kennedy Center is delightful. Billed as a 'family opera', the work is accessible across all ages and successfully accomplishes it's stated objective. It is quite inexplicable that this charming, one-act, opera is not better known. Any opera company would enjoy tremendous success with this work as part of an evening of shorter works. The Soprano aria, 'It's My Downfall' (Track 9) is equisite as a set-piece on its own, amply demonstrating the untapped songwriting abilities Ms. Simon possesses. Very worthwhile purchase and worthy of multiple listens.

Commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera Guild and The Kennedy Center, and dedicated "to all the children of divorce", Carly Simon's ROMULUS HUNT is a little bit rock and roll, a little bit genuine opera, and a lot Broadway. It is a little hard to figure out what age group and what area group of musical interest it is targeted for. Having described it to a friend as an opera for children, I find on re-listening that there are several things in the libretto that I would not want to have to explain to a child coming home from a performance. (The line "I believe a boy of twelve should carry condoms to be safe" spoken by our child hero, made me shudder, although I suspect that he is just making fun of his father's attitudes when he says it.)

Romulus is a young boy whose parents are divorced. His mother is well-to-do and overprotective. His father is a free soul who wants the boy to experiment and have adventures.

(How well I remember in high school envying a girl who had a similar situation. Her mother lived on the Upper East Side while her father lived in a cool studio in Greenwich Village. She could stay with which ever one she wanted to, and got double gifts for birthdays and holidays ! It took me years to figure out the emotional costs for my friend.)

Romulus has an imaginary Jamaican protector named Zoogy, and the father has a live in girlfriend. With just five characters and a small orchestra the work would be economical to produce, and it has Simon's fine tunes going for it. (One should mention a 'laugh out loud' self quote from Simon's YOU'RE SO VAIN.) The instrumentation is a little heavy on the drum kit but generally apt and very well performed here.

The singers are excellent. Kurt Ollmann, Abbado's preferred Pelleas and a favorite of Bernstein, is excellent as the father, and NYCO divas Luretta Bybee and Wendy Hill as mother and girlfriend both have excellent high notes and project the text admirably. Jeff Hairston as Zoogy creates a wonderful character and brings interesting readings to his lines. Andrew Leeds has one of those brash Broadway child voices that can be annoying, but it works here, and he is quite moving when, as at the end, he has to show vulnerability.

The sound recording is excellent and there are full texts.

My husband and I saw an act of this opera performed at Bard College a couple of years ago one summer.

Unfortunately they have not found the funds to mount the whole opera, and I'm sorry it had been discontinued

as an album because this is new music at its finest. The opera is about a young boy in a family that divorced and how he negotiates life. It is very timely, very cool, absolutely cutting edge new music. It is not my personal experience but as for the music itself: I wish I had could have written it or something like it. Great achievement.