Goldenthal began to work for the movies in 1989, with the ill-starred Pet Sematary, and he maintain himself in a discreet second level for a few years until the coming of Alien 3 (1992). However, his labour as composer far from the film world starts long time before, and his symphonic and scenic works had already call the attention for his vibrant and peculiar music, being Juan Darién, premiered in New York in March of 1988, a curious and original piece between the concert and the scene subtitled as A Mass Carnival, a perfect example of it. The dramatic base is a short story by Horacio Quiroga, reinterpreted by Goldenthal in an almost religious form; this atraction towards the catholic rites as a musical and dramatic sustain (do not forget its almost theatrical component) is a constant obsession in his work, not only on the recent Fire Water Paper, but also in the different connotations (Dies Irae, Libera Me, etc) which appeared on the already mentioned Alien 3, in Demolition Man (1993) or in Interview with the Vampire (1994), or in the quasi Passional touch of the main characters in Heat (1995) or Michael Collins (1996). It is precisely this relationship between the popular, the religious and the theatrical, what prevails in Juan Darién, with its adjusted and personal orchestration (violin, trumpet, tubas, keyboards, acordeons, clarinet, sax and a huge percussion section) and its vocal treatment (a choir of female voices, a boy soprano who impersonate Juan, a contralto for the Mother character and, as a contrast, a wretched and agressive baritone voice -the own Goldenthal on this recording-), making so interesting this original score.

Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass (1988)
Devin Provenzano (Boy Soprano) - Andrea Frierson Toney (Contralto) - Elliot Goldenthal (Baritone)
Instrumental Group - Conductor: Richard Cordova
SONY CLASSICAL - 01-062845-10 / 60'

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