Opera Sauvage

VANGELIS OPERA SAUVAGE

Noted film composer Maurice Jarre scored the soundtrack to The Year of Living Dangerously, but the theme everyone remembers from that film is "L'enfant" by Vangelis. That track originally appeared on Opera Sauvage, a Vangelis album that slipped in under the radar just before he scored Chariots of Fire. The simple pentatonic theme of "L'enfant," with the piano chirping out the sparse melody over a two-note synthesizer ostinato, remains powerfully evocative. The cinematic expressiveness of "L'enfant" can be found on most of the music from Opera Sauvage, including the mournful "Hymne," the tremulous "Mouettes" with its quavering thereminlike lead, and the surprising "Chromatique," one of the few times Vangelis uses an acoustic guitar. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Opera Sauvage is that the entire album wasn't co-opted for soundtrack music. --John Diliberto