John Franceschina
Desire Under the Elms: Incidental Music for Orchestra was commissioned by the School of Theatre at Florida State University for the production of Eugene O’Neill’s play, Desire Under the Elms, directed by Gil Lazier, opening at the Richard G. Fallon Theatre on 7 March 1980. John Franceschina’s incidental music portrayed the dark and dissonant atmosphere of the fatal attraction between Eben Cabot and his father’s new young bride that ultimately results in infanticide and desolation. Divided into twenty-three individual cues, the dramatically compelling music was scored for piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, 2 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B flat, 2 trombones, vibraphone, timpani, percussion (snare drum, suspended cymbal, wood block, temple blocks, accordion, and strings. Features writer for the Florida Flambeau (7 March 1980), Chris Farrell, wrote: 'John Franceschina, who wrote the music for this production, also deserves praise, in much the same way as the set, he provides an emotional atmosphere that ties the pieces of this play in an impressive whole.'John Franceschina, composer, has created scores for the National Shakespeare Company and the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Washington’s Ford’s Theatre and the Arena Stage, the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Papermill Playhouse, Music Theatre Works, and the Moscow Art Theatre, in addition to the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, where he acted as composer-in-residence from 1976 to 1993. His Fanfare for the Fiftieth was commissioned by Philippe Entremont for the fiftieth anniversary of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra in 1985; his secular oratorio, Houtebeen, for male chorus, string orchestra and accordion ensemble, toured the Netherlands in 2014, and his opera, Scenes from the Jungle toured the Netherlands in 2019.
