The American Ritual Theater Company (ARTCO) was founded by William Harper to commission and produce new works of music theater. Harper served as artistic director from 1977-2006
AN OPERA - MUSIC BY WILLIAM HARPER
TEXTS BY WILLIAM HARPER & ROGER NIEBOER
DIRECTED BY RHODA LEVINE
PREMIERE: NOVEMBER, 1989 IN MINNEAPOLIS
Poster by Tison Keel
On Snow Leopard
Harper's most impressive achievement is that he's found a way to divorce rock opera from song form, to make vernacular music continuous without falling into the staticness of Ashley or Glass.
Kyle Gann, Village Voice
Harper has the singular ability to be able to write long - seemingly unending - legato musical lines of extraordinary beauty, and to be able to compose for the human voice as well. In this sense his writing reminds me of that of Bellini. Bravo for this premiere!
Patrick Smith, Opera News
Harper's sensual, electronic score adds resonances and nuances that confound the literal and specific. Instead of the expected local color - Oriental Idioms - he uses American pop: gospel, rock and rap recitations. Rather than a series of stop and go numbers, the music flows organically and dramatically from one idiom to another, highlighted and supported by the inventive electronic instrumentation.
Michael Anthony, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A seamless blend of choral music, dialogue, and strong visual imagery, Snow Leopard presents a dark night of the soul that succeeds not only as music but as theater. This is terrific to look at and to listen to.
Robert Collins, Twin Cities Reader
AN OPERA - MUSIC BY WILLIAM HARPER - LIBRETTO BY BERNARDO SOLANO - DIRECTED BY TOM O'HORGAN
PREMIERE: SEPTEMBER, 1993 IN NEW YORK
Poster by Tison Keel
On El Greco
William Harper paints in long, bold strokes, balancing scenes instead of motives, and propelling the ear on voyages of emotion. Elegant counterpoint interwoven with Gregorian Chant joyous ensemble pieces break out at every dramatic juncture. The tonality is postminimal, but the ways textures alternate and recur provides an effective, Stravinskian illusion of perpetual forward motion.
Kyle Gann, Village Voice
The Inquisitor's music is magnificently eerie, the mystic's aria pristine the major sequences surged thrillingly. Harper allows himself an unembarrassed neo-renaissance grandeur, wild around the edges.
Alex Ross, New York Times
A MUSICAL - MUSIC & LIBRETTO BY WILLIAM HARPER - DIRECTED BY DAVID ZAK PREMIERE: JUNE, 1986 IN CHICAGO
Poster by Tison Keel
On Peyote Roadkill
If there can be such a thing as a Chicago style of serious music theater, Harper embodies it.
Kyle Gann, Chicago Reader
Peyote Roadkill is one of the most elaborate displays of theatrical spectacle I've seen in Chicago (and that includes Cats ). Some of the visual effects are weirdly beautiful, like a Chicago Imagist canvas come to life.
Albert Williams, Chicago Reader
The most innovative work on Chicago's burgeoning entertainment sceneit captures a surreal, otherworldly quality that makes this production a must seeEveryone should experience a unique work like Peyote Roadkill just once in their lives.
Fred Nuccio, Lerner Newspaper
William Harper the composer is richly inventive and resourcefuland has a fine ear for music and deep insights into the power of sound.
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Tribune
AN OPERA/DANCE WORK - MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY WILLIAM HARPER
DIRECTED BY WILLIAM HARPER - CHOREOGRAPHED BY GIGI BUFFINGTON & POONIE DODSON
PREMIERE: FEBRUARY 1985 IN CHICAGO
Poster by Tison Keel
ON Crimson Cowboy
Crimson Cowboy was a brilliantly conceived and well integrated piece of genuine multimedia, its striking symbolism is carried out on an alarming number of levels.
Kyle Gann, Chicago Reader
Harper is a gifted composer, comfortable in styles ranging from liturgical chant to rock.
Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times
Crimson Cowboy, a collaborative work mixing music, dance, performance art and drama is many things: audacious, dazzling, beautiful, fascinating, amusing, mournful and elegiaca bold experiment.
Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune
AN OPERA/DANCE WORK - MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY WILLIAM HARPER
DIRECTED BY D.W. MOFFAT - CHOREOGRAPHED BY JAN BARTOSEK
PREMIERE: FEBRUARY, 1984 IN CHICAGO
Poster by Tison Keel
On Dead Birds
Dead Birds is an incredibly powerful exploration of what war does to human beings.
Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-times
ARTCO is dedicated to generating a new American musical theater. Dead Birds confirms Harper as a dynamo in that process.
Camille Hardy, Dance Magazine
Harper's music has a variety and power which carry the evening through. Dead Birds is an evening of excitement.
Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune
The originality and momentum of William Harper's music, and the energy it imparts to Jan Bartosek's choreography gave promise that Chicago may soon have the answer to New York's "new opera" composers Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson.
Kyle Gann, Chicago Reader