Glass Notes

Reviews: Kepler at Spoleto USA and Symphony No.6 in Scotland

The Charleston City Paper reviews Spoleto's production of the 2009 Glass opera.  Perhaps coincidentally, the Post and Courier reports on a huge jump in ticket sales at the festival.  The Guardian UK covers the UK premiere of Glass' Symphony No.6 "Plutonian Ode" with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, I think it's fair to say that the reviewer didn't care for the piece.

Jawohl!

Listen: Info Radio Kultur: Bruckner und Glass

Interview with Kepler director Sam Helfrich

Starting this weekend, Philip Glass' 2009 opera Kepler will begin its run at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston South Carolina.  This represents the first staged performances of this work in the United States having only received a concert performance by the Landestheater Linz at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Director of the Spoleto production Sam Helfrich has previously worked on two Glass operas. 

Richard Guérin: I first encountered your work with Philip Glass' chamber opera Orphée which was done at Glimmerglass, which has been very successful later going to Portland and Virginia.  Then I saw your direction of a small scale "pocket opera" as Glass calls it, with In the Penal Colony in Brooklyn.  Now your taking on a grand opera with his 2009 Kepler.  Can you describe a little bit your experience with the works of Philip Glass.

Sam Helfrich: Well, I can start by saying that the three pieces are not easy to compare, and that each piece, and each production, has been unique. Of course there are familiar elements across all of these pieces, the musical language being an obvious one, but also the consistent exploration of characters who struggle with their own convictions and who challenge the audience to think differently about the world. In a funny way, in spite of how vastly different each one of these operas is in style, they are all character driven. Orphée is as much of a psychological portrait as Kepler is... continue reading (Word Doc)

Issue Project Room Brooklyn

Philip Glass, Nate Wooley and Stephin Merritt
Wednesday June 13 – 8PM
Buy Tickets | Admission: $85 Preferred Seating, $35 General Admission

Philip Glass, Jon Gibson and Tristan Perich
Thursday June 14 – 8PM
Buy Tickets | Admission: $85 Preferred Seating, $35 General Admission

Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and Ryan Sawyer
Friday June 15 – 8PM
Buy Tickets | Admission: $150 VIP Seating with reception, $55 General Admission

 

Legendary composer Philip Glass, both controversial and ever-present, has captured the American public perhaps more than any living composer. For his operas, symphonies, compositions for his own ensemble, and wide-ranging collaborations Glass has had an unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

For three intimate evenings, Philip Glass comes to ISSUE Project Room, New York’s City’s only European Chamber Music Hall. His only performance in Brooklyn this year, “Philip Glass: Music With Friends” is a rare occasion featuring Glass in duo performances with Laurie Anderson [6/15], Jon Gibson [6/14], and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields [6/13], as well former ISSUE Artists-in Residence Tristan Perich [6/14], Ryan Sawyer [6/15], and Nate Wooley [6/13]. The full artist roster will be announced soon, under 200 seats will be sold for each performance.

A special benefit for ISSUE Project Room and the Aurora Foundation

Philip Glass: Music With Friends is presented with Media Partnership from Flavorpill

 

Salt and Glass: Kepler coming to Spoleto

From the Washinton Post

Brass Sextet - An Oldie

TONIGHT AT BARGE MUSIC:

Brass Sextet, composed in 1962/64 for two trumpets, two horns, trombone and tuba, is something of a curiosity. It was written when Philip Glass, after graduating from the Julliard School of Music, was composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Public Schools on a Ford Foundation project. This was several years before he began to become known for the repetitive minimalist techniques which launched him to fame and have enabled him to enter some of the world's leading opera houses.

The Sextet is not listed by Glass now, but it was actually published in England in 1966 by Novello & Co. in their Music for Today Series edited by Geoffrey Bush. The writing shifts rather uneasily from consonance to dissonance but there is plenty of American precedent behind the Hymn, Ballad and gently jazzy Finale.

— Peter Dickinson

Philip Glass on HARDtalk

Philip Glass & Tim Fain at the Met Museum

Juilliard Journal, The Fader, Naqoy Concerto, North Star DVD, Kepler at Spoleto, Days & Nights News, and Glassworks' 30th

The Juilliard Journal interviews Philip Glass

A big piece on "The Icon" Philip Glass in Fader magazine

The Cincinnati Symphony will be broadcasting its performance of Cello Concerto No.2 "Naqoyqatsi" on American Public Media

The film North Star about sculptor Mark di Suvero is finally available on DVD at Amazon

A glimpse at the upcoming first-staged production of Glass' Kepler at the Spoleto Festival

News about the Days & Nights Festival scaling back

And the celebrating 30th birthday of Glassworks

Einstein hits London

Gosh, one week away and quite a lot has happened. 

Perhaps the largest event was the UK premiere of "Einstein on the Beach"  at the Barbican in London. 

The BBC did an interview with Glass and Wilson about their creation. Here is Richard Fairman's rather snooty account of his attendence written in the Financial Times.  But perhaps the most ignorant review was by a jackass named Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph who:

"remains adamantly of the view that such stuff is flatulently pretentious in its wilful opacity and without aesthetic, intellectual or spiritual substance. It is also asphyxiatingly tedious and left me wanting to scream. Unless you are a paid–up devotee of the Glass–Wilson cult, avoid this like the plague."

This made my day. The fact that a great many people, including myself, find a great deal of aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual substance in Einstein is self-evident.  Generations of short-sighted music critics have come and gone as this work marches on bringing great joy to people, must really drive them crazy.  

To his credit, Mr. Clements of the Guardian simply calls Einstein "old fashioned."  The way these writers contort themselves in every possible way to find a way to criticize is simply unbelievable.  Do they find the Rite of Spring old fashioned enough to mention it in reviews? Is the Ring cycle old-fashioned?  If calling something old fashioned isn't a criticism then surely they don't anticipate future productions of the work?  That's strange because I anticipate many. 

This same phenomenon happened around the recent perofrmances of Satyagraha.  Certain works, whether I like them or not stand the test of multiple generations of audiences.

Mr. Michael Church of the Independent seemed to like the show, maybe it's in the British delivery, as I imagine these articles being read by nasally BBC reporters, but he ends his review like this:

"If you’re looking for 'meaning', this is a monumentally boring show. But if you just say yes, it’s intermittently glorious."

There is some lingering controversy in that apparently Bianca Jagger saw fit to snap flash photos during the show.