The Song of Songs (1992)

Beauty is the primary characteristic of the Robert X. Rodríguez’s SONG OF SONGS.... Written as a Holocaust memorial, the work combines passages from the biblical "Song of Songs Which is Solomon’s" with a short love story by Sholem Aleichem....Combined with ethereal accompaniments on strings, harp and piano, they were as ravishing as the King James version’s poetry....While appealing musically, the SONG OF SONGS somehow avoids both prettiness and anachronism. It is as delicate and fragile as a piece of crystal, but could have been written only in the 20th (or 21st) century, after Stravinsky’s L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT.

THE SONG OF SONGS [is] a theatre piece for mezzo-soprano, actor and chamber ensemble. This cleverly mixes two Songs of Songs - one the biblical one sung by the vocalist, the other a Sholom Aleichem tale read by the actor. The instrumentalists provide musical commentary. Both as a story and as a piece of music it was a consistently interesting work.