| Operas by Philip Glass |
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Einstein on the Beach (1976) |
Appomattox is an opera in English based on the American Civil War, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by the playwright Christopher Hampton. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Philip Glass (born January 31 Einstein on the Beach is an Opera scored and written by Philip Glass and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. Satyagraha is an Opera in three acts for orchestra chorus and soloists composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by the composer and Constance de The Photographer is a Chamber opera by Composer Philip Glass that is based on the Homicide trial of Photographer Eadweard Muybridge Akhnaten is an Opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV written by the American The Juniper Tree is an opera co-composed by Philip Glass and Robert Moran in 1985 to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on the Brothers Robert Moran (born January 8, 1937) is a renowned American Composer of operas and ballets as well as numerous orchestral vocal chamber and " The Fall of the House of Usher " is a Short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Hydrogen Jukebox is a Chamber opera featuring the music of Philip Glass and the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. The Voyage is an Opera in three acts (plus a prologue and an epilogue by the American composer Philip Glass (born 1937 Monsters of Grace is a multimedia Chamber opera in 13 short acts directed by Robert Wilson, with music by Philip Glass and libretto from the Galileo Galilei is an Opera based on excerpts from the life of Galileo Galilei which premiered in 2002 at Chicago 's Goodman Theatre Waiting for the Barbarians is an opera in two acts composed by Philip Glass, with libretto by Christopher Hampton based on the 1980 novel of the same name Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Philip Glass (born January 31 Christopher James Hampton CBE (born January 26, 1946) is an Academy Award winning British playwright screen writer and film director The work had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera on October 5, 2007, with a cast that included Dwayne Croft as Robert E. San Francisco Opera (SFO is the second largest Opera company in North America. Dwayne Croft is an American baritone who has sung in more than 300 performances in 25 roles at the Metropolitan Opera. Lee and Andrew Shore as Ulysses S. Grant. The piece is about two and a half hours long, in two acts, with a prologue and an epilogue.
Synopsis
The opera is set in the final days of the American Civil War.
The prologue begins with Julia Dent Grant (soprano) singing of her fears for her husband, Ulysses, and her sense of foreboding. Julia Boggs Dent Grant ( January 26, 1826 &ndash December 14, 1902) was the wife of the 18th President of the United States, She is soon joined by the Mary Custis Lee (soprano) and her daughter Agnes Lee (soprano) who worry for their way of life and hope the war will be over soon. Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee ( October 1, 1807 &ndash November 5, 1873) was the wife of Confederate General Robert E Mary Todd Lincoln (soprano) appears and asks her black servant Elizabeth Keckley (mezzo-soprano) to interpret a nightmare her husband, the President, has had. Mary Ann Todd Lincoln ( December 13, 1818 &ndash July 16, 1882) was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818-1907 (sometimes spelled Keckley) was a former slave turned successful seamstress who is most notably known as being Mary Todd Lincoln All sing of the sorrows of war and the hope that this will be the last, joined by a female chorus who carry pictures of their loved ones killed in the war.
Act I covers the days leading up to Robert E. Lee's surrender in five scenes. Robert Edward Lee (January 19 1807 &ndash October 12 1870 was a career United States Army officer, an Engineer, and among the most celebrated
Scene 1 starts with Abraham Lincoln (bass) and Ulysses S. Grant (baritone). Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal Ulysses S Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27 1822 &ndash July 23 1885 was an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States Aboard his floating headquarters on the Potomac, the President and Grant outline a plan to end the war and `discuss the generous terms of surrender to be offered to Lee. Their wives arrive, Mrs. Lincoln voicing petty grievances, while Mrs. Grant is steadfast and calm. News of a successful retaking of a confederate-held fort is brought in by Brigadier General John Rawlins (bass) and Colonel Ely Parker (Tenor) of the day's battle, Grant orders the final assault on Richmond. John Aaron Rawlins ( February 13, 1831 &ndash September 6, 1869) was an United States Army general during the American Civil Ely Samuel Parker (1828 &ndash August 31, 1895) (born Hasanoanda, later known as Donehogawa) was an Iroquois of the Seneca The scene ends with an actual Civil War Campfire Song "Tenting at the Old Tent Ground" sung by both armies as Grant and Robert E. Lee (Baritone) watch the sunset from their different offices.
Scene 2 transitions to the offices of General Lee. Mrs. Lee rejects her husband's advice to flee Richmond before the coming battle. Lee reflects on his reason for joining the Confederacy despite having been offered the leadership of the Union forces: his invincible loyalty to his home state of Virginia. General Howell Cobb (bass) arrives to give a report and confronts Lee over a bill he supports, one that will recruit slaves to fight for the confederacy, a bill that Cobb believes undermines the entire revolution: If slaves make good soldiers, where does that leave the theory of slavery? Lee responds that his business is war, not theorizing. (Thomas Howell Cobb ( September 7, 1815 – October 9, 1868) was an American political figure
Scene 3 is a lengthy monologue for Julia Grant. On the eve of the Union's attack on Richmond, she reflects on the hard years of her husband's earlier life, including his business failures and alcoholism, but she recalls her mother's prophecy that he would rise to be the highest in the land. Now she worries about the horrible strain the long, bloody war has put on him. Grant assures her that the seemingly endless killing will soon be over.
Scene 4 is a depiction of the destruction of Richmond, the chorus of refugees fleeing and singing between bomb blasts. Mrs. Lee, remaining in her home, watches as the residents of Richmond flee and burn everything they own as to not leave anything behind for the Union army. She and Agnes reflect on the horrors of war. A Regiment of black Union soldiers enter and sing a marching tune. The black reporter T. Morris Chester (tenor) writes a triumphant report to his newspaper while sitting in the speaker's chair of the House of Representatives. President Lincoln arrives and meets a throng of newly freed slaves. When one of them falls to her knees in front of him, he lifts her up telling her to kneel only to God. The slaves sing a hymn in praise of Lincoln. Mrs. Lee meets with Brig. General Rawlins, and expresses her outrage at having a black soldier as sentry in her occupied house. The sentry is to be replaced with a white soldier.
Scene 5 depicts the exchange of letters between Lee and Grant after the taking of Richmond. Grant proposes that Lee surrender to avoid further bloodshed. Lee's initial response is equivocal, only inquiring as to the terms Grant might propose, and later suggesting they meet to discuss "peace" rather than "surrender. " But when Lee receives news of his encircled army's failed breakout attempt, he realizes his options are disappearing. His aide, Brig. General Edward Alexander (Tenor), proposes a radical change of strategy: guerrilla warfare. Edward Alexander may refer to Edward Porter Alexander, mathematician author and US Civil War soldier from Washington Georgia Edward P Lee rejects the stratagem, saying that the soldiers would have to revert to robbing and plundering just to subsist. With no remaining alternative, Lee writes to Grant and asks for a meeting to discuss surrender. The full, crushing weight of his decision weighs upon him as he accepts the reality of defeat.
Act II begins on April 9, 1865 The meeting to negotiate the surrender is being prepared in a house owned by Wilbur McLean (Baritone) in the small town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Wilbur McLean was a man who lived in Virginia during the American Civil War. Appomattox Court House is a village located three miles (5 km east of Appomattox, Virginia, USA (25 miles east of Lynchburg Virginia, in the Lee arrives impeccably dressed, while Grant, in his haste appears in a battered, stained uniform. After polite reminiscence about their past acquaintance, Lee finally raises the subject of surrender. Grant proposes the broader terms and proceeds to write them down.
Their discussion is interrupted by a sudden flash-forward to early morning, five days later. Mrs. Lincoln tells Elizabeth Keckley about another of the president's nightmares in which he witnessed his own funeral after being killed by an assassin. Keckley interprets the dream as the death of the war, not the President. Mrs. Lincoln tells of another dream, in which the president rode alone on a great ship to a vague, distant shore. This time, Keckley has no answer and rushes from the room. Mrs. Lincoln sees a vision of a funeral procession bearing a flag-draped coffin, and sees herself following it. She screams and collapses, and the action returns to the treaty signing.
Grant proposes--to Lee's great relief--that all officers and men be allowed to return to their homes after handing over their arms. Lee requests a moment to look over the terms.
The action flashs forward again, to 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana. Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common T. Morris Chester enters and, obviously traumatized, reports the infamous Colfax massacre, in which a hundred black militiamen were cut down by the Ku Klux Klan and White League. The Colfax Massacre or Colfax Riot (as the events are termed on the official state historic marker occurred on April 13, 1873, in Colfax Louisiana Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are The White League was a white Paramilitary group which was established in 1874 in Louisiana and operated during Reconstruction.
Grant accedes to Lee's request that all his men, not just the officers, be allowed to keep their horses, so that they can return home to work their farms. The terms are set down in ink by Colonel Ely Parker, the only Native American present. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States
The Scene flashes forward again, this time to 1965. Four Civil Rights Marchers enter and, with the chorus, sing "The Ballad of Jimmie Lee", a folk song telling of the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, and set out on the Selma to Montgomery marches. Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 1938 – February 26, 1965) was a young unarmed civil rights protestor who was shot by an Alabama State Trooper in 1965 The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the Political and emotional peak of the American civil rights
The meeting concludes as Lee signs the letter accepting the terms, and the generals shake hands. After Lee bows and leaves, Lee approaches his troops and confirms the surrender; they can go home now, and if they are as good citizens as they were as soldiers, then he will be proud of them.
As the generals depart, soldiers and civilians advance, and the McLean household is systematically ravaged by souvenir hunters. Rapacity and greed—harbingers of the future—violently intrude on the heels of a moment of historic reconciliation.
The action flashes forward one last time, to the present day. Edgar Ray Killen (Bass-Baritone), a Klan member now in jail for his role in the Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders in 1964, appears. Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen (born 17 January 1925) is an American former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired to kill three The Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders involved the 1964 slayings of three political activists during the American Civil Rights Movement. Now and old man and wheelchair bound, he sings in short, barking phrases of his pride in ordering the death of two Jewish civil rights workers and their black driver, and relives the murder in enthusiastic detail. His horrible recollection over, he disappears.
In a brief epilogue, Julia Grant sorrowfully realizes that the War was not the last, as she has hoped, and that mankind will forever fight and kill. She leads the Women's Chorus in a wordless lament to the sorrow of war.
Unusually, both male leads, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, are sung by baritones, so as to facilitate comprehension of the text without the aid of supertitles. The music is original except for the use of the first and third verses of the Civil War era song "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" at the end of Act I Scene 1. "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" was a popular song during the American Civil War. Act II uses Psalm 47, "Clap your hands all you people," and the text from a First Arkansas Brigade song, but these are set to music by Glass.
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