Philip Glass. Einstein on the Beach (1976). Philip Glass / Robert Wilson. Théâtre du Châtelet 2014. This is the video stream from this week's performance in France.
One can’t really figure out much about Einstein or his works except that perhaps he loved trains and paper planes, he played the violin, and his works has something to do with nuclear bomb.
I made it to the opera in Berkeley tonight. I was impressed how the composer sympathetically conveys the experience of the President as he majestically gets off a long plane ride from the US to China. Oh wait, that's the other canonical late 20th Century American opera.
Ok, back to Einstein on the Beach. I can't decide if it was crazy, crazy good, or the whole experience was just a dream. Probably all three. Seeing is believing, in this case.
While the opera conveys next to nothing about Albert Einstein, it's definitiely a consciousness revolution take on the first half of the 20th Century. With hindsight, 1900-1950 should be classified as crazy. So those 1930s-born creatives, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, and Lucinda Childs, filtered that modern atomic era through a 60s/70s aesthetic. Call it a "double crazy."
I look forward to a future production, by younger artists, to see if the work can escape its creative context.
Doctor Atomic, by John Adams, in a way, covers the same subject, except that Adams is a baby boomer rather than from the Silent Generation (e.g. Colin Powell, Walter Mondale, Woody Allen, Martin Luther King, Jr., ElizabethTaylor, Elvis Presley as well as Glass/Wilson/Childs). That Adams opera probably won't be a canonic work, despite some early enthusiasm on my part.
Einstein's 4.5 hours was long but it was like a plane ride in that after a couple hours, the momentum started to accumulate and before I knew it, we were on our final, crazy, descent. Similarly, I didn't feel like climbing over my seat mates given the opera had no formal intermission (for a 4.5 hour production!).
Although I closely follow the San Francisco Giants, I was a boyhood fan of the Detroit Tigers and I may ultimately regret saying this, but I hope the Tigers win on Sunday. The spouse and I are going to the matinee of Einstein on the Beach tomorrow afternoon so a loss would let me watch what could be the final game on Monday.
Go Giants (sooner or later) and go Philip Glass...
I've waited two years since the announcement to see Einstein on the Beach tonight in Berkeley. To prepare, I spent much of the summer listening over and over and over to the (now) three recordings.
Alas, today, instead, I helped an elderly loved one move from assisted living to a memory care residence. No regrets...
...exhilarating revival...compelling lead performers...nonsensical yet alluring text...calming and sweetly mystical...exuberant and crazed... suited to current musical politics and social culture...the brilliant violinist Jennifer Koh...original, visionary and generous work...moments of ominous intensity...two trial scenes are highlights...dazzling choreography... if it were trimmed...
Act One opens with Train (23 minutes). Train sets the tone and pace of the show, as well as introduces the first musical theme. You’ll have a better idea after watching this scene of how your patience for EINSTEIN will hold up.
