The New York Times-20080125--Musical Mysteries-
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'Musical Mysteries'
Full Text (394 words)'MUSICAL MYSTERIES' For young fans of Lemony Snicket there was probably no more unfortunate literary event than the end of his wildly popular string of children's novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events, in 2006. But now Snickettians are anticipating a fortunate event: the New York premiere of The Composer Is Dead, by Lemony Snicket and Nathaniel Stookey, which the Little Orchestra Society will perform on Saturday in Musical Mysteries. The narrator will be none other than that deliciously dour master of macabre plots, Lemony Snicket himself.
I often find more inspiration in disheartening works than in heartening ones, Daniel Handler (a k a Lemony Snicket) said, acknowledging a tendency that won't surprise his readers. In this case the disheartening work was Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, which Mr. Handler had narrated in San Francisco, where he lives.
It's a great piece of music, with spectacularly lousy text, he said. He and Mr. Stookey, a composer whom Mr. Handler had known in high school and had recently bumped into, decided to do their own full-orchestra work. In 2009 HarperCollins will publish The Composer Is Dead as a CD and as a book (above, one of its illustrations by Carson Ellis).
It's not unlike 'Law & Order,' Mr. Handler said, with the instruments in the orchestra instead of various character actors in the New York metropolitan area.
Although the program is part of the Happy Concerts series for ages 6 to 12, you don't have to look far for unfortunate events: Musical Mysteries begins with John Corigliano's Pied Piper Fantasy -- hang on to your children -- and concludes with The Composer Is Dead. Murdered, that is.
Mr. Handler, as the inspector, interrogates the orchestra's sections. They're able to introduce themselves and provide an alibi, until eventually the murderer is found, he explained.
Although this murder case offers plenty of mirth, Mr. Handler added that the score was as complex as it was accessible. It's not like taking your kids to see some cartoon characters on ice, he said. It's more like taking your kids to see a composer laid out on a slab. A field trip to the morgue? Only Lemony Snicket could think of that. (At 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, 212-971-9500, littleorchestra.org; $10 to $40.) LAUREL GRAEBER
[Illustration]DRAWING (DRAWING BY CARSON ELLIS, FROM THE COMPOSER IS DEAD)