Leonard Kastle
Leonard Gregory Kastle (February 11, 1929 – May 18, 2011)SUNY Albany music faculty.[1]
Following his high school education in
Gian-Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber, and a piano scholarship with Isabelle Vengerova. He attended Columbia University from 1947 to 1950.[3]
In 1956, Kastle composed a thirteen-minute "made-to-measure" opera, titled The Swing, for two singers, a speaking part, and piano accompaniment. It was commissioned by and broadcast on the
Essex, a trilogy of operas about the Shakers known under the collective title The Passion of Mother Ann: A Sacred Festival Play, a children's opera called Professor Lookalike and the Children, a piano concerto, sonatas for piano and violin, and three unproduced screenplays, Wedding at Cana, Change of Heart, and Shakespeare's Dog. [citation needed
]
In a 2003 interview for the
Criterion Collection, he said that no producer wanted Wedding at Cana, just another Honeymoon Killers, which he did not want to do. After The Honeymoon Killers, Kastle returned to teaching and composing. After the Criterion release of the film, he was rediscovered by a new generation of cult film enthusiasts and occasionally attended film-related events such as the Ed Wood Film Festival in 2007, where he served on the panel of judges[5]
Kastle died May 18, 2011, at his home in Westerlo, New York, at the age of 82.[2]
References
- ^ University at Albany
- ^ New York Times
- ^ Biodata, Leonard Kastle Papers, State University of New York at Albany, library.albany.edu; accessed November 19, 2014.
- ^ E[dward] D[ownes], "13-Minute Opera Bows on TV Program", New York Times (June 12, 1956).
- ^ Casey Seiler, Kastle keeps court, TimesUnion.com, September 14, 2007
External links
- Leonard Kastle at IMDb
- Leonard Kastle's Obituary & Condolence Book
- Interview with Leonard Kastle, October 23, 1988
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