Press about Timberbrit
“The audience is reminded of Spears's
music and lyrics; but the fast pacing of pop becomes dark and weighted.
. .The stretching of both the music and the story prolongs Spears's
destruction and amplifies her downfall, but seeing it happen in slow
motion makes it all the more tragic.”
- All Things Considered, NPR (listen
to the whole piece)
“[With Timberbrit],
our city can lay claim to a new cultural offering.”
- Page 6 Magazine (NY Post)
“The opera easily transcends its
conceptual calculations and becomes an engrossing, intriguing human
drama. Human vocals waft over a wave of slowed-down chords, accented by
crashing drums and keyboard effects. It has the airy eeriness of a
David Lynch film score, yet not as doom-laden…The grandeur and polish
bear the patience and intelligence of a classical score, but the
humanity and desperation are pure pop…Just as few fans of Verdi's Camille,
Puccini's Madama Butterfly or Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
have read the books and stories on which those operas are based,
someday when people have forgotten about the real Britney Spears, they
may still be enthralled by the tragic electronically fueled slo-mo
musical meltdown of Timberbrit.”
- Chris Arnott, The New Haven Advocate (read the
whole article)
“Listening to [Timberbrit's] Britney singing like
a record on the wrong speed, you feel like either she must be on the
drugs, or you are…There are moments of overwhelming force in the work.
Like when Justin and Britney's voices are nearly drowned out by the
guitarist's wall-of-sound chords and the apocalyptic drums. Or the duet
when Justin's voice slides above Britney's in a piercing falsetto as
they proclaim their love for each other.”
- Tom MacMillan, Signals and Noise blog (read the
whole review)
“A PR person's wet dream…The lives of
former Mouseketeers sure make for ripe melodrama.”
- Randy Nordschow, NewMusicBox.org
Also see the interview with Cooper in the Toronto Star, the preview article by Adam Rathe in the Brooklyn Paper, Alex Ross's Timberbrit shout-out, and a wonderfully scathing review by a bicoastal blogger.
