'King Gesar' gathers 'round the campfire in Long Beach
The late American composer Peter Lieberson imagined he was creating a campfire opera, a Tibetan Buddhist legend told by a narrator, who recites, scats and sings, backed by a small instrumental ensemble in front of an audience happily eating and drinking. It was no campfire when premiered in Munich and repeated at Tanglewood two decades ago, not with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianists Peter Serkin and Emanuel Ax in the gla…