Einstein on the Beach
Music by Philip Glass · libretto by Philip Glass · premiered 1976 · at Festival d'Avignon
Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts by Robert Wilson with music composed by Philip Glass.
The opera eschews traditional narrative in favor of a formalist approach based on structured spaces laid out by Wilson in a series of storyboards which are framed and connected by five "knee plays" or intermezzos.
The opera's premiere occurred on July 25, 1976, at the Théâtre Municipal in Avignon, France, as part of the Avignon Festival. The opera contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs. It is Glass's first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours in full performance without intermission; given the length, the audience is permitted to enter and leave as desired. The work became the first in Glass's thematically related Portrait Trilogy, along with Satyagraha (1979), and Akhnaten (1983). These three operas were described by Glass as portraits of people whose personal vision transformed the thinking of their times through the power of ideas rather than by military force.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Einstein on the Beach", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Philip Glass is the composer of record for this opera.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Philip Glass", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Philip Glass
- Akhnaten (1983)
- 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988)
- Hydrogen Jukebox (1990)
- La Belle et la Bête (1994)
- In the Penal Colony (2000)
- Galileo Galilei (2002)
- Appomattox (2007)
- Kepler (2009)