What Was Wood Became Alive

I've long had a fascination with the Kaspar Hauser story (the Herzog movie, the Handke play, the Vega song), and years ago I happened to read a transformative book about the musical calling, Listening Out Loud, by the composer Elizabeth Swados. So I jumped at the chance to write about Swados' new music-theatre piece at the Flea, co-written with Erin Courtney, Kaspar Hauser: a foundling's opera. Quoth Swados:

"I love the sound of things...If two people are arguing on the street, I'm more interested in how they're shouting at each other than what they're saying. So it was so appealing to me to write songs for somebody who can't talk."