The Worst [Empanadas] in London

Ricardo Lorenz

2011

Piano

"Summer of 1982 was wonderfully diabolic. As a newly arrived foreign student from Venezuela assigned to the Indiana University Opera chorus, I danced a waltz with Mephistopheles and had my throat slit by the demon barber of Fleet Street. The truth is that singing in Gounod's Faust that summer dressed like a monk was great, but it didn't compare to the experience of singing in Sweeney Todd- my first encounter with the powerful world of Stephen Sondheim. In honor of this masterpiece, 'The Worst [Empanadas] in London' is a re-imagining of 'The Worst Pies in London' and 'A Little Priest' as a tongue-in-cheek, smorgasbord of Latin American grooves, preserving as much as possible the original features and intent of these songs. I am deeply indebted to the late Fredda Hyman and to Music in the Loft for commissioning this work especially for The Liaisons Project."