RZEWSKI: “ANTIGONE-LEGEND.” Carol Plantamura, soprano; Frederic Rzewski,...

RZEWSKI: “ANTIGONE-LEGEND.” Carol Plantamura, soprano; Frederic Rzewski, piano. CRI SD-548. Rzewski intended his 1982 setting of Brecht’s Antigone poem (in Judith Malina’s translation) as accompaniment to a staged version of the tragedy; divorced from the theatrical element, it impresses as a windy, ungraciously scored scena. The soprano leaps wide intervals; the pianist responds with massive chords, wispy melodies and an occasional grunt and gasp. Plantamura delivers the text with clarity, but all her talents can’t save it.