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from WILD MATTERS, January 2001:

There is a tremendously heroic quality to David Budbill and Erik Nielsen's new operatic adventure, A Fleeting Animal . . . . The production was a revelation to me . . . and a wonder. I entered the theatre almost unwillingly and emerged . . . (gulp!) . . . enlightened.

As daring as the work may seem on several levels, conceptually, philosophically, linguistically and musically, it advances the great tradition of American 20th Century music . . . . Since Erik Nielsen happens to be a modernist/post-modernist composer, he brings a certain trans-Atlantic pressure to bear on the peculiarly American vernacular of Budbill's characterizations. . . . Budbill and Nielsen's high contrasts actually succeed in transcending both of their parallel universes in a style and manner that benefits them both. Together they create the utterly cathartic effect that neither could have achieved separately. . . . A Fleeting Animal is a great testament to the process of collaboration between two artists of power. . . .

I found the musical line--despite its modernist roots--to be deeply melodic . . . . [and] . . . the libretto [creates] the opportunity to savor the . . . startling lyrical clarity of Budbill's writing.

A Fleeting Animal has made me wonder if Arthur Miller's sobering statement from the middle of the American Fifties that it is no longer possible for anyone to write a tragedy in post-industrial and post-Hiroshima civilization may finally become obsolete. . . .

A Fleeting Animal, the new opera by David Budbill and Erik Nielsen, celebrates the stark beauty of Vermont's "Northeast Kingdom" and the harsh lives of its people . . . . The music, wedded to powerful theatre, transports the listener.

Nielsen's score boasts sensitive text-setting and expert ensembles (each of the two acts features a memorable love duet). The chorus, Grimes-like, gets much of the best part-writing. Nielsen keeps his seven member pit band busy, mixing clarinet, string, piano, and percussion textures to evoke a distinctive sound-world which seldom obscures voices. He uses vernacular styles (such as Canadian fiddling) without affectation; in the softball scene, an "eleven o'clock number" that forestalls the final catastrophe, the community hails Vermont's brief summer with an exuberant twelve-bar blues. . . .

In Budbill's finely crafted libretto (drawn from his verse play about a fictional town, Judevine), Grace, an embittered single mother, and Tommy, a Vietnam veteran, enjoy an erotic idyll which provokes the community's puritanical wrath. A visit from Tommy's war buddies introduces elements of racism, but the explosive mix is leavened by scenes at a skating rink and a softball game. The story ends tragically, but with hints of redemption. . . .

A Fleeting Animal is the real thing. . . . with a powerful score that combines spicy modern styles and real operatic emotion it creates a portrait of rural Vermont that not only rings true but tears at the heartstrings. . . .

Budbill based the opera's tragic story on two characters in the . . . writer's . . . acclaimed play, Judevine . Tommy has come back from Vietnam to his hometown, the fictitious Judevine in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. He brings back with him a particularly horrifying experience that will plague him to the end of his life.

Despite feeling like a lost soul, Tommy finds a job logging with the feisty French-Canadian Antoine. He also discovers the single-mother Grace, who lives with her two kids in a trailer park, and is a fellow lost soul. The townspeople disapprove of the relationship, calling Tommy "crazy" and Grace "a slut." But, they don't care - they've found each other.

The arrival of two of Tommy's Vietnam buddies - who are black - raises the ire of the townspeople even more. In one of the most powerful scenes, fellow logger Doug confronts Tommy, calling him a "nigger lover." What could be a moment of hate gets turned around to become one of the most touching moments in the opera.

Still, the most moving segments are the tender moments as well as hostile ones between Tommy and Grace, and, of course, the final tragedy. For these times, Nielsen has set Budbill's powerful words with a style that might be called 21st century Puccini. The music builds into particularly beautiful passages that tear directly at the heartstrings.

Budbill and Nielsen proved an excellent pairing. Budbill's earthy Vermont language and story is well expressed by Nielsen's music, which often overlays tonal vocal lines over unsettling atonal accompaniment. Duets, trios and quartets were particularly well-written and satisfying. . . .

A Fleeting Animal proved a powerful and often beautiful experience.

The new Vermont opera by Erik Nielsen . . . proved itself a triumph Sunday in a well-attended afternoon performance that ended in an immediate standing ovation.

A Fleeting Animal . . . based on the Judevine poems by Vermont poet David Budbill . . . was . . . the real thing, with fine voices, a skilled orchestra, expert music direction, a serious and dramatic script, and about two hours of evocative and often very beautiful music.

There were lots of stars but the brightest (as must be the case in any successful opera) was the music. Nielsen's score was thoroughly modern but eclectic at the same time, not afraid of tonality and not averse to atonality either; so that the whole question of tonality-the great bugaboo of "modern" music-became nearly irrelevant.

More importantly, the style of music suited the mood of the action and the actors and enhanced the emotional impact of the drama.

Some of the solo writing was a little dry for our tastes, but there were moments of great beauty. Our favorites were the jazz-inflected scene late in the second act and the tender and anguished music given to the chorus near the end as tragedy unfolds around them.

The love duets of the major two actors were affecting as well. . . .

Dramatically, A Fleeting Animal sets the time-honored tradition of star-crossed lovers in hardscrabble rural Vermont, where Tommy is a veteran scarred by his Vietnam experience and Grace is an unwed mother from the wrong side of town. Imprisoned both by their own demons and by the narrow-mindedness of the townsfolk, they find brief happiness together only to succumb to their torments.

The chorus of townsfolk at least has the decency in the end to mourn, but this is not a pretty picture of rural life. There's a bow to the brief relief offered by summer, in a softball game scene, but even this is accompanied by a blues tune.

Far more frequently there are complaints about how cold it is and how hard everybody has to work and how nobody can be kind to one another. Tommy's black friends from Vietnam offer a racial dimension to the general distress . . . .

Just then . . . comes the affecting finale. Grace, losing her mind, imagines that she is beginning a new relationship with a man, which can fulfill her terrible needs. Nielsen illustrates Grace's illusions with hopeful, almost happy music, while the horrified chorus of townspeople responds with musical sobs of anguish. It's an inspired ending in the great tragic tradition.

A Fleeting Animal finds David Budbill at his best crafting of words. this is a genuine libretto from the had of a . . . poet. . . . It is an exemplary libretto, simple, tightly constructed.

The music which Erik Nielsen has composed to these lines is terrific. Basically romantic in its sounds the music never overpowers the words. Nielsen has made an opera that's going to be sought after by opera departments in college and universities everywhere, as well as professional companies . . . . The vocal writing, for soloists and chorus alike, is filled with Nielsen's apparent love of the human voice and of words. It has the certitude that guided Benjamin Britten in his vocal writing. This is a keeper.

This is the best new opera that I have seen since I saw a performance of Jorge Martin's Tobermory with the Lake George Opera Company several years back.

Erik Nielsen has been composing for almost 30 years. His catalog includes works for chorus, orchestra, solo instruments, chamber music in many configurations and electronic music.

His works have been performed in Europe and Australia as well as in many locations throughout the United States by numerous ensembles, including the Emerson and Ying String Quartets, the Killington and Manchester Chamber Players, Bread and Puppet Theater, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Vermont Symphony, the Vermont Youth Orchestra and Village Harmony.

Erik Nielsen has won awards from ASCAP, the Vermont Arts Council, and in 1991 was chosen Vermont Composer of the Year by the Vermont Music Teachers Association. He was a 1994-95 recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship in music. In 1995 His piano quintet was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Manchester Chamber Players.

In addition, he is the former Director of the Consortium of Vermont Composers, a position he held for three years. He is Composer-in Residence at Simsbury High School in Simsbury, Connecticut.

Mr. Nielsen lives in Brookfield, Vermont, with his wife, Barbara, and their three daughters, Cora, Christina, and Ingrid.

Important work. . . a high caliber creator. . . the work is compelling.

Haunting, moving. . . intriguing and striking.

Anne Decker is beginning her second year as conductor with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association. This season, Ms.Decker will be directing the Vermont Youth Philharmonia. In 1999, she was hired by the VYOA to direct the Vermont Youth Sinfonia and the Vermont Youth Flute Choir. In addition to her duties with the VYOA, she is the assistant conductor of the Pioneer Valley Orchestra & Chorus in Greenfield, MA, conducts the Monteverdi Capital Orchestra, is the music director at the Middlesex Methodist Church, and active as an educator in local schools. This October, Ms. Decker will be conducting the world premiere of Erik Nielsen's A Fleeting Animal, an opera from David Budbill's play, Judevine with Vermont Opera Theatre. At this fall's Millenium Music Festival, she will be conducting excerpts from George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children.

Anne Decker holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Illinois State University and degree in music education from Western Michigan University. As the assistant conductor at Illinois State University, Anne Decker was the Music Director for the musical, Cabaret and also conducted a performance of Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. She has studied conducting with Glenn Block, Kirk Muspratt, David Effron and has participated in master classes led by Paul Vermel, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Larry Rachleff, David Epstein, Christopher Wilkins, and Joseph Gifford.

A new music enthusiast, Ms. Decker founded Collegium Novum in 1996, a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to performing music by living composers. In her role as Artistic Director and Conductor, Ms. Decker commissioned new works and organized a composers competition. She also received grants to bring in composer Joan Tower for two residency programs in area schools. The ensemble has also commissioned two pieces by the composer-in-residence, Dennis DeSantis. In 1999, Ms. Decker had the opportunity to work with Augusta Reed-Thomas, resident composer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble: