Einstein on the Beach
Nov. 20th, 2012 22:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyEinstein on the Beach. Robert Wilson and Philip Glass. Performed by Pomegranate Arts.
I didn't used to like Philip Glass. I distinctly remember watching Koyaanisqaatsi for a high school class (yes, that basically sums up my high school right there) and hating the music. But, like many Glass devotees, I had a conversion experience - specifically, I saw Dennis Russell Davies conduct the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in the American premier of the "Tirol Concerto" for piano and orchestra in my senior year of high school and I very clearly remember nearly being brought to tears by the music. Which, for all that I love music, and consciously use it to deal with and express my own inner life and emotions, is not actually something that happens to me very much. And I have loved Glass ever since (although I am sympathetic to the argument that some of his output, particularly as his career has gone on and his influences have gone past him, can get shtick-y).
All of which is to say that I jumped at the chance to see Glass' monumental opera when I heard that it was coming to Berkeley, and I was not disappointed.
I'm still not sure what to say to the question, "What is it about?" I saw the opera. I sat there for all but III.3b, when I went out to the lobby and ate my quiche for dinner and watched via the CCTV, and despite all this I'm still not sure what the opera's actually about. I read the Wikipedia article and it made sense after what I saw, I can say that much.
People call this opera "monumental," and I agree that it's probably something that just has to be experienced, like a wave rolling over you. It was exhilarating, thrilling, magical in some respects - particularly when, around the end of the second act, I started to realize the structure of the opera and how it fit together and suddenly was getting 100% more out of it. It's minimalism, and in particular Philip Glass minimalism, so in retrospect it seems completely natural that the opera lasts four and a half hours: it couldn't last less, because everything proceeds by incremental variation over time. So you'll be sitting there, paying attention, but then suddenly you'll realize that something has started to change, and it's nothing short of…astonishing.
The performances were stellar, particularly the lighting and the singing and the violinist in the Einstein wig. (I guess she was supposed to be Einstein? It makes sense.) Fantastic.
Anyway. I saw it with someone who'd seen it two nights in a row, which is a bit too intense an experience than I would want to have, but I'm so glad I did go see it. Fantastic. Amazing. Mind-blowing.
I didn't used to like Philip Glass. I distinctly remember watching Koyaanisqaatsi for a high school class (yes, that basically sums up my high school right there) and hating the music. But, like many Glass devotees, I had a conversion experience - specifically, I saw Dennis Russell Davies conduct the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in the American premier of the "Tirol Concerto" for piano and orchestra in my senior year of high school and I very clearly remember nearly being brought to tears by the music. Which, for all that I love music, and consciously use it to deal with and express my own inner life and emotions, is not actually something that happens to me very much. And I have loved Glass ever since (although I am sympathetic to the argument that some of his output, particularly as his career has gone on and his influences have gone past him, can get shtick-y).
All of which is to say that I jumped at the chance to see Glass' monumental opera when I heard that it was coming to Berkeley, and I was not disappointed.
I'm still not sure what to say to the question, "What is it about?" I saw the opera. I sat there for all but III.3b, when I went out to the lobby and ate my quiche for dinner and watched via the CCTV, and despite all this I'm still not sure what the opera's actually about. I read the Wikipedia article and it made sense after what I saw, I can say that much.
People call this opera "monumental," and I agree that it's probably something that just has to be experienced, like a wave rolling over you. It was exhilarating, thrilling, magical in some respects - particularly when, around the end of the second act, I started to realize the structure of the opera and how it fit together and suddenly was getting 100% more out of it. It's minimalism, and in particular Philip Glass minimalism, so in retrospect it seems completely natural that the opera lasts four and a half hours: it couldn't last less, because everything proceeds by incremental variation over time. So you'll be sitting there, paying attention, but then suddenly you'll realize that something has started to change, and it's nothing short of…astonishing.
The performances were stellar, particularly the lighting and the singing and the violinist in the Einstein wig. (I guess she was supposed to be Einstein? It makes sense.) Fantastic.
Anyway. I saw it with someone who'd seen it two nights in a row, which is a bit too intense an experience than I would want to have, but I'm so glad I did go see it. Fantastic. Amazing. Mind-blowing.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-21 09:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-21 21:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-22 06:31 (UTC)