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Einstein on the Beach

Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson, who also collaborated with Glass on the work's libretto.[2][3] 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.[4] The music was written "in the spring, summer and fall of 1975."[5] Glass recounts the collaborative process: "I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time."[6]

Einstein on the Beach
Opera by Philip Glass
A 2012 production
Librettist
Premiere
July 25, 1976; 47 years ago (July 25, 1976)

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.[7] 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.[7]

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.[7]

Composition and performance history edit

Glass and Wilson first met to discuss the prospects of a collaborative work, and decided on an opera of between four and five hours in length based around a historical persona. Wilson initially suggested Charlie Chaplin or Adolf Hitler, whom Glass outright rejected, while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi (later the central figure of his 1979 opera Satyagraha). Albert Einstein was the eventual compromise.[8] The title appears to reference the post-apocalyptic novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute.[9] The opera was originally to be titled Einstein on the Beach on Wall Street but was later shortened; neither Glass nor Wilson remember when or why.[10][11]

1976 premiere and first tour edit

 
Théâtre Municipal in Avignon, France, site of the opera's 1976 premiere

Einstein on the Beach premiered on July 25, 1976, at the Théâtre Municipal in Avignon, France, as part of the Avignon Festival.[1] It was performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble and presented by the Byrd Hoffmann Foundation.[2] The opera was also staged that summer in Hamburg, Paris, Belgrade, Venice, Brussels and Rotterdam. The Byrd Hoffman Foundation in cooperation with the Metropolitan Opera held two performances in November 1976.[7][12] Lucinda Childs, Robert Wilson, pupil Sheryl S. Sutton, and Samuel M. Johnson filled the primary characters. All three would go on to reappear in the 1984 BAM revival.

1980s edit

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) next mounted the opera in 1984. A one-hour documentary about this production appeared on public television, titled Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera.

In 1988, opera director Achim Freyer, who had staged the world premiere of Glass's Akhnaten in Stuttgart, Germany in 1984, designed and staged a reworked version in a highly abstract style, with new spoken texts from the early 20th century, at the Stuttgart State Opera. As with the premiere, this version was also conducted by Michael Riesman.[13]

1990s edit

In 1992, a revival was mounted by International Production Associates that included the participation of Wilson, Glass and Childs. The production was re-staged at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University. It subsequently toured to Frankfurt, Melbourne, Barcelona, Madrid, Tokyo, Brooklyn (BAM), and Paris.

2000s edit

In 2007, Carnegie Hall presented a concert version of Einstein in which violinist Tim Fain appeared as soloist. The New York Times wrote about his performance, "And Tim Fain, the violinist, gave the solo passages in the second, fourth and fifth 'Knee Plays' and in the climactic, swirling 'Spaceship Interior' scene an electrifying, virtuosic workout." Fain tours extensively with Philip Glass in duo recitals and they always include the solo from "Knee Play 2" on their program.[14]

2010s edit

 
Scene from the opera performed 10 January 2013

A revival with the participation of all the original collaborators was commissioned by the New York City Opera (NYCO) to open their 2009–10 season. When General Manager designate Gerard Mortier withdrew from NYCO, the revival, along with the rest of Mortier's programming, was canceled.[15]

The team that had organized the New York City Opera production put together another group to remount Einstein, under the management of Pomegranate Arts. After a month of rehearsals overseen by Glass, Wilson and Childs, the first performance in 20 years took place on January 20, 2012, presented by the University Musical Society at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Two additional performances that weekend followed. The performance featured Kate Moran and Helga Davis replacing Childs' and Sutton's roles respectively. Grammy Award-nominated violinist Jennifer Koh played the role of Einstein in the preview and alternated with Antoine Silverman for the subsequent tour. The other instrumental performers and solfege soprano for these performances are the current members of the Philip Glass Ensemble without Glass himself performing. The performers in the 2012 production included members of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company: Ty Boomershine, Vincent McCloskey, Matthew Pardo, Patrick O'Neill, Stuart Singer, Lonnie Poupard, Caitlin Scranton, Sharon Milanese, Katie Dorn, Katherine Helen Fisher, Anne Lewis, Shakirah Stewart, and Sarah Hillmon. The chorus for this revival was composed of sopranos Michèle Eaton, Melanie Russell, Lindsay Kesselman; altos Hai-Ting Chinn, Solange Merdinian, Kate Maroney; tenors John Kawa, Philip Anderson, Tomas Cruz; and basses Greg Purnhagen, Joe Damon Chappel, and Jason Charles Walker.

The official tour began on March 16, 2012 after a single preview the previous evening with the premiere at the Opéra Berlioz in Montpellier, France. This was followed by performances at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, Italy; the Barbican Centre, London; the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto; the Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn, New York; Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, California; the Teatro del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City: in 2013, at Het Muziektheater/De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam;[16] Hong Kong; Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;[17] Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles: and, in 2014 there were performances in Paris and Berlin. In October 2015 this production came to an end with performances in Gwangju, South Korea.[18][19]

This touring production of Einstein on the Beach was commissioned by: BAM; the Barbican, London; Cal Performances with the University of California, Berkeley; Luminato – Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity; De Nederlandse Opera/The Amsterdam Music Theatre; Opéra national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon; and the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan.[20]

Carolina Crown's 2013 Drum Corps International Championship production "E = mc2" included selections of the opera.[21]

Culturebox, a digital production dedicated to cultural content for French Television, streamed a live performance from Théâtre du Châtelet on January 7, 2014, and made it available as streaming video for the next six months only. This was the first time the opera was filmed.[22]

A new staging of Einstein on the Beach premiered at the Opernhaus Dortmund, Germany, in April 2017. It was directed by Kay Voges [de] and was the first production without Glass or Wilson personally involved.[23] The opera was also staged at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2019 as part of La Batie performing arts festival. That production was directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca [it].[24]

Synopsis edit

From the beginning of Glass and Wilson's collaboration, they insisted on portraying the icon purely as a historical figure, in the absence of a storyline attached to his image. While they did incorporate symbols from Einstein's life within the opera's scenery, characters, and music, they intentionally chose not to give the opera a specific plot.[25] This is in accord with Wilson's formalist approach, which he asserts creates more truth on stage than naturalist theater. Wilson structured Einstein on the Beach as a repeating sequence of three different kinds of space. Between major acts are shorter entr'actes known as "knee plays," a signature technique that Wilson has applied throughout his oeuvre.[26] Propelling idea of "non-plot" within Einstein on the Beach, its libretto employs solfège syllables, numbers, and short sections of poetry. In an interview, Glass comments that he originally intended for his audience to construct personal connections with Einstein as a character and with the music that he assigns to the icon.[2] For example, the music within the first of the opera's "Knee Plays" features repeated numbers accompanied by an electric organ. Glass states that these numbers and solfège syllables were used as placeholders for texts by the singers to memorize their parts, and were kept instead of replacing them with texts.[2] This numerical repetition, however, offers an interpretation as a reference to the mathematical and scientific breakthroughs made by Einstein himself. Of further reference to the icon's image, everything on the originally staged set of Einstein on the Beach, from costumes to lighting, depicts specific aspects that refer to Einstein's life.[27]

Overall, the music assigned to Einstein demonstrates a circular process, a repeating cycle that constantly delays resolution. This process uses both additive and subtractive formulas. The three main scenes within the opera—"Train", "Trial", and "Field/Spaceship"—allude to Einstein's hypotheses about his theory of relativity and his unified field theory.[27] Specifically, themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons, science, and AM radio.

The opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes in four acts separated by "Knee Plays". Five "Knee Plays" frame the opera's structure and appear in between acts, while also functioning as the opening and closing scenes. Glass defines a "Knee Play" as an interlude between acts and as "the 'knee' referring to the joining function that humans' anatomical knees perform".[2] While the "Knee Plays" helped to create the necessary time to change the scenery of Wilson's seven sets, these interludes also served a musical function. David Cunningham, a Glass scholar, writes that the intermittence of Glass's "Knee Plays" amongst the opera's four acts, serves as a "constant motif in the whole work".[27]

The opera requires a cast of two female, one male, and one male child in speaking roles (for the Wilson production); a 16-person SATB chamber chorus with an outstanding soprano soloist and a smaller tenor solo part; three reed players: flute (doubling piccolo and bass clarinet), soprano saxophone (doubling flute), tenor saxophone (doubling alto saxophone and flute); solo violin, and two synthesizers/electronic organs.[7] The orchestration was originally tailored to the five members of the Philip Glass Ensemble, plus the solo violin.

Structure edit

The work is structured as follows:[2]

  • Prologue (solo electric organ)
  • Knee Play 1 (electric organ, SATB chorus)
  • Act 1
    • Scene 1 – Train (piccolo, soprano and tenor saxophones, solo soprano and alto voices, SATB chorus, two electric organs)
    • Scene 2 – Trial
      • Entrance (three flutes, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ)
      • "Mr. Bojangles"[a] (solo violin, two flutes, bass clarinet, SATB chorus, two electric organs)
      • "Paris"/"All Men Are Equal" (solo electric organ)
  • Knee Play 2 (solo violin)
  • Act 2
    • Scene 1 – Dance 1 "Field with Spaceship" (piccolo, soprano and alto saxophones, solo soprano and alto voices, two electric organs)
    • Scene 2 – Night Train (solo soprano and tenor voices, two flutes, bass clarinet, SATB chorus, electric organ)
  • Knee Play 3 (SATB chorus a cappella)
  • Act 3
    • Scene 1 – Trial 2/Prison
      • "Prematurely Air-Conditioned Supermarket" (SATB chorus, electric organ)
      • Ensemble (three flutes, two electric organs)
      • "I Feel the Earth Move" (soprano saxophone, bass clarinet)
    • Scene 2 – Dance 2 "Field with Spaceship" (solo violin, solo soprano, SATB chorus, electric organ)
  • Knee Play 4 (solo violin, tenor and bass chorus)
  • Act 4
    • Scene 1 – Building/Train (two electric organs, improvisatory woodwinds and chorus, solo tenor saxophone)
    • Scene 2 – Bed
      • Cadenza (solo electric organ)
      • Prelude (solo electric organ)
      • Aria (solo soprano, electric organ)
    • Scene 3 – Spaceship (flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, solo violin, solo soprano voice, SATB chorus, two electric organs)
  • Knee Play 5 (solo violin, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ)

Recordings edit

Professional ratings
1979 Tomato LP
Review scores
SourceRating
Christgau's Record GuideB+[29]
Pitchfork10/10[30]

Two "complete" recordings of the opera have been made: the first in 1978, initially released on the Tomato label (TOM-4-2901) in 1979, and later reissued by CBS Masterworks, followed by Sony Classical (both M4K 38875); the second in 1993, released that same year on the Nonesuch label (79323). The 1978 recording was held to 165 minutes in order to fit onto four LP records, i.e., the opening scene's repeats were considerably shortened. The 1993 recording encompassed 200 minutes, freed by the technology of the compact disc, although it was released on three CDs instead of the original's four.

Michael Riesman conducted both recordings. In 1978, Lucinda Childs, Sheryl Sutton, Paul Mann, and Samuel M. Johnson performed the opera's texts, with Philip Glass Ensemble performer Iris Hiskey taking the soprano solo. In 1993 Childs and Sutton repeated their roles, while Gregory Dolbashian and Jasper McGruder replaced Mann and the late Mr. Johnson's roles respectively; Patricia Schuman sang the soprano role.[31][32] Most of the participants in the Nonesuch recording had performed in Einstein on the Beach during its 1992 world tour. A 77-minute highlights CD from the 1984 Brooklyn Academy of Music performances, accompanied by a DVD documentary, was released by Philip Glass's personal label Orange Mountain Music in early September 2012,[33] and an extended recording, 217 minutes long, was released at the same time but available only by download from the iTunes Store. In October 2013, Pacifica Radio released a two disc set of a 1976 interview with Glass and Wilson conducted at The Kitchen and excerpts from a rehearsal of some excerpts from the opera, also performed at The Kitchen on March 19, 1976.[34]

The violin part for the work has been performed by Robert Brown (in the live 1976 production), Paul Zukofsky (in the 1979 recording), Tison Street (in the live 1984 production), Gregory Fulkerson[35] (in the live 1992 production and 1993 recording) and an interchanging performance of Jennifer Koh and Antoine Silverman during the 2012/16 production.

A shortened version of "I Feel the Earth Move", along with three other pieces from the opera, were chosen to appear on the Philip Glass album Songs from the Trilogy.

Anton Batagov recorded 3 transcription pieces (Scene 2 – Trail 1 from act 1, scene 2 – Night Train from act 2 and Knee Play 5) from this work on solo piano in his album Prophecies (2016, on Orange Mountain Music label).

A 270-minute recording from January 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris was released on DVD and Blu-ray in October 2016.[36]

In popular culture edit

The title was used as inspiration for the 1994 Counting Crows song "Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)".

Excerpts were used as background music for several shots in season 3, episode 5 (2017) of the Mr. Robot television series.[37]

In the episode "Out with Dad" of the TV series Frasier, the title character, an opera lover, says, "You see, there's a stunning woman who comes to the opera on the same nights we do. She has the box right across from ours. We've flirted a bit from a distance. I have laughed with her during Figaro, cried with her during Tosca. I even had a dream about her during Einstein on the Beach."[38]

Excerpts from the movement "Knee Play 1" are played during a montage sequence in the 2005 Alex Gibney documentary film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.[39]

An edited version of "Knee Play 1" was also used in the launch advertisement for Orange S.A. in 1994.[40][41]

At the 2013 Drum Corps International World Championship, the first-place winners, Carolina Crown, earned a perfect score in the brass section when they performed parts of "Knee Play 3", "Trial/Prison", "Spaceship", and "Knee Play 5".[42]

Among the works of Peter Schickele's fictitious alter ego P.D.Q. Bach is one called Einstein on the Fritz (S. E=mc2). Schickele was a friend of Philip and was a Juilliard classmate of his.

Helen Pickett's 2012 When Love created on the Dance Theatre of Harlem uses Knee Play 5.[43]

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Mr. Bojangles" refers to the man (Bill Robinson) and the song "Mr. Bojangles"[28]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Rockwell, John (1 August 1976). . The New York Times. Vol. 125, no. 43289. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glass, Philip; Jones, Robert T (1995). Music by Philip Glass. Da Capo Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-306-80636-0. OCLC 477227754.
  3. ^ Griffel, Margaret Ross (2013). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Vol. 1. Scarecrow Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-8108-8272-0. OCLC 1248771681.
  4. ^ "Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts". Stanford University Libraries. 2008. Retrieved 2012-04-14.
  5. ^ Glass, Philip (1978). "Notes: Einstein on the Beach". Performing Arts Journal. 2 (3): 63–70. doi:10.2307/3245363. ISSN 0735-8393. JSTOR 3245363. S2CID 194880860.
  6. ^ Shyer, Laurence (1989). Robert Wilson and His Collaborators. Theatre Communications Group. p. 220. ISBN 9780930452964. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Dunvagen Music Publishers, Einstein on the Beach (Recording)". Philipglass.com. Nonesuch Records. 1993. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  8. ^ Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. Continuum. p. 133. ISBN 9780826418159. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
  9. ^ Rockwell, John (17 December 1984). "'Einstein' Returns Briefly". The New York Times. Vol. 134, no. 46261.
  10. ^ Page, Tim (2012). ""Einstein on the Beach"—Philip Glass, Robert Wilson (1979)" (PDF). National Register. Library of Congress. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  11. ^ Swed, Mark (November 18, 2020). "Philip Glass and 'Einstein on the Beach': How one opera changed everything". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  12. ^ Barnes, Clive (23 November 1976). "Einstein on the Beach Transforms Boredom Into Memorable Theater". The New York Times. Vol. 126, no. 43403. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  13. ^ Stuttgart State Opera, performance programme, 1988
  14. ^ "At the Shore, Although the Water Is Shallower" by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, December 8, 2007
  15. ^ "Gerard Mortier resigns from New York City Opera". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. November 7, 2008. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  16. ^ . Pomegranate Arts, Inc. 2012-01-24. Archived from the original on 2011-08-24.
  17. ^ "Einstein on the Beach". What's On. Arts Centre Melbourne. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  18. ^ Einstein on the Beach / Gwangju, Robert Wilson calendar
  19. ^ . Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2015-10-18.
  20. ^ . Pomegranate Arts, Inc. 2012-01-24. Archived from the original on 2012-01-15.
  21. ^ "Corpsreps.com – The Drum Corps Repertoire Database". corpsreps.com. corpsreps.com. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  22. ^ "Einstein on the Beach broadcast live on Culturebox from Théâtre du Châtelet on January 7, 2014" (PDF).
  23. ^ Einstein on the Beach, production details Opernhaus Dortmund, April 2017 (in German)
  24. ^ Grand Théâtre de Genève (2019). Einstein on the Beach
  25. ^ Schwarz, K. Robert (2008). Minimalists. Phaidon. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7148-4773-3. OCLC 966086574.
  26. ^ Wilson, Robert; Kuhn, Hans P; Fairbrother, Trevor J (1991). Robert Wilson's Vision. Museum of Fine Arts. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-87846-324-4. OCLC 243725042.
  27. ^ a b c Cunningham, David (1997). "Einstein on the Beach". In Kostelanetz, Richard (ed.). Writings on Glass: Essays, Interviews, Criticism. Simon & Schuster; Prentice Hall International. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-02-864657-2. OCLC 670529591.
  28. ^ "American Gothic" by Hilton Als, The New Yorker, September 22, 2008
  29. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 978-0-89919-025-9. OCLC 473083697.
  30. ^ Walls, Seth Colter (14 November 2016). "Philip Glass: The Complete Sony Recordings Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  31. ^ "Jasper McGruder". wnyc.org. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  32. ^ "Einstein on The Beach liner notes". discogs.com. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  33. ^ Philip Glass & Robert Wilson: Einstein on the Beach CD/DVD ASIN B009173UBY
  34. ^ "Discovering Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach" by bdeshazor, Pacifica Radio, 14 October 2013
  35. ^ "Gregory Fulkerson at Melody Bunting International".
  36. ^ Einstein on the Beach (Châtelet, 2014) Opus Arte, Naxos Records OCLC 962027757
  37. ^ "Mr. Robot "eps3.4_runtime-err0r.r00" (TV Episode) soundtrack". IMDb. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  38. ^ "Out With Dad - Frasier Transcript". kacl780.net. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  39. ^ "Enron, the smartest guys in tHe room, Trilha sonora (2005)". Ringostrack.com. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  40. ^ "Orange / Launch Ad / 1994". YouTube. Orange S.A.
  41. ^ Woodford, Stephen. "My Favourite Five Ads". The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  42. ^ Michael Boo (April 23, 2018). "Spotlight of the Week: 2013 Carolina Crown". www.dci.org. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  43. ^ "Dance Theatre of Harlem -". Dance Theatre of Harlem. Retrieved 2023-04-24.

External links edit

  • Work details, philipglass.com
  • Analysis 2007-01-07 at the Wayback Machine by Nicolas Sceaux, 2002
  • Photographs from the world premiere of Einstein on the Beach, Avignon Festival, 1976

einstein, beach, this, article, about, philip, glass, opera, counting, crows, song, eggman, opera, four, acts, composed, philip, glass, directed, theatrical, producer, robert, wilson, also, collaborated, with, glass, work, libretto, opera, eschews, traditional. This article is about the Philip Glass opera For the Counting Crows song see Einstein on the Beach For an Eggman Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson who also collaborated with Glass on the work s libretto 2 3 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 4 The music was written in the spring summer and fall of 1975 5 Glass recounts the collaborative process I put Wilson s notebook of sketches on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November and those drawings were before me all the time 6 Einstein on the BeachOpera by Philip GlassA 2012 productionLibrettistRobert Wilson Philip GlassPremiereJuly 25 1976 47 years ago July 25 1976 Theatre Municipal 1 Avignon FranceThe opera s premiere occurred on July 25 1976 at the Theatre Municipal in Avignon France as part of the Avignon Festival The opera contains writings by Christopher Knowles Samuel M Johnson and Lucinda Childs 7 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 7 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 7 Contents 1 Composition and performance history 1 1 1976 premiere and first tour 1 2 1980s 1 3 1990s 1 4 2000s 1 5 2010s 2 Synopsis 3 Structure 4 Recordings 5 In popular culture 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksComposition and performance history editGlass and Wilson first met to discuss the prospects of a collaborative work and decided on an opera of between four and five hours in length based around a historical persona Wilson initially suggested Charlie Chaplin or Adolf Hitler whom Glass outright rejected while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi later the central figure of his 1979 opera Satyagraha Albert Einstein was the eventual compromise 8 The title appears to reference the post apocalyptic novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute 9 The opera was originally to be titled Einstein on the Beach on Wall Street but was later shortened neither Glass nor Wilson remember when or why 10 11 1976 premiere and first tour edit nbsp Theatre Municipal in Avignon France site of the opera s 1976 premiereEinstein on the Beach premiered on July 25 1976 at the Theatre Municipal in Avignon France as part of the Avignon Festival 1 It was performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble and presented by the Byrd Hoffmann Foundation 2 The opera was also staged that summer in Hamburg Paris Belgrade Venice Brussels and Rotterdam The Byrd Hoffman Foundation in cooperation with the Metropolitan Opera held two performances in November 1976 7 12 Lucinda Childs Robert Wilson pupil Sheryl S Sutton and Samuel M Johnson filled the primary characters All three would go on to reappear in the 1984 BAM revival 1980s edit The Brooklyn Academy of Music BAM next mounted the opera in 1984 A one hour documentary about this production appeared on public television titled Einstein on the Beach The Changing Image of Opera In 1988 opera director Achim Freyer who had staged the world premiere of Glass s Akhnaten in Stuttgart Germany in 1984 designed and staged a reworked version in a highly abstract style with new spoken texts from the early 20th century at the Stuttgart State Opera As with the premiere this version was also conducted by Michael Riesman 13 1990s edit In 1992 a revival was mounted by International Production Associates that included the participation of Wilson Glass and Childs The production was re staged at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University It subsequently toured to Frankfurt Melbourne Barcelona Madrid Tokyo Brooklyn BAM and Paris 2000s edit In 2007 Carnegie Hall presented a concert version of Einstein in which violinist Tim Fain appeared as soloist The New York Times wrote about his performance And Tim Fain the violinist gave the solo passages in the second fourth and fifth Knee Plays and in the climactic swirling Spaceship Interior scene an electrifying virtuosic workout Fain tours extensively with Philip Glass in duo recitals and they always include the solo from Knee Play 2 on their program 14 2010s edit nbsp Scene from the opera performed 10 January 2013A revival with the participation of all the original collaborators was commissioned by the New York City Opera NYCO to open their 2009 10 season When General Manager designate Gerard Mortier withdrew from NYCO the revival along with the rest of Mortier s programming was canceled 15 The team that had organized the New York City Opera production put together another group to remount Einstein under the management of Pomegranate Arts After a month of rehearsals overseen by Glass Wilson and Childs the first performance in 20 years took place on January 20 2012 presented by the University Musical Society at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Two additional performances that weekend followed The performance featured Kate Moran and Helga Davis replacing Childs and Sutton s roles respectively Grammy Award nominated violinist Jennifer Koh played the role of Einstein in the preview and alternated with Antoine Silverman for the subsequent tour The other instrumental performers and solfege soprano for these performances are the current members of the Philip Glass Ensemble without Glass himself performing The performers in the 2012 production included members of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company Ty Boomershine Vincent McCloskey Matthew Pardo Patrick O Neill Stuart Singer Lonnie Poupard Caitlin Scranton Sharon Milanese Katie Dorn Katherine Helen Fisher Anne Lewis Shakirah Stewart and Sarah Hillmon The chorus for this revival was composed of sopranos Michele Eaton Melanie Russell Lindsay Kesselman altos Hai Ting Chinn Solange Merdinian Kate Maroney tenors John Kawa Philip Anderson Tomas Cruz and basses Greg Purnhagen Joe Damon Chappel and Jason Charles Walker The official tour began on March 16 2012 after a single preview the previous evening with the premiere at the Opera Berlioz in Montpellier France This was followed by performances at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia Italy the Barbican Centre London the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Toronto the Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn New York Zellerbach Hall at the University of California Berkeley California the Teatro del Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City in 2013 at Het Muziektheater De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam 16 Hong Kong Arts Centre Melbourne Melbourne Australia 17 Los Angeles Opera Los Angeles and in 2014 there were performances in Paris and Berlin In October 2015 this production came to an end with performances in Gwangju South Korea 18 19 This touring production of Einstein on the Beach was commissioned by BAM the Barbican London Cal Performances with the University of California Berkeley Luminato Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity De Nederlandse Opera The Amsterdam Music Theatre Opera national de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon and the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan 20 Carolina Crown s 2013 Drum Corps International Championship production E mc2 included selections of the opera 21 Culturebox a digital production dedicated to cultural content for French Television streamed a live performance from Theatre du Chatelet on January 7 2014 and made it available as streaming video for the next six months only This was the first time the opera was filmed 22 A new staging of Einstein on the Beach premiered at the Opernhaus Dortmund Germany in April 2017 It was directed by Kay Voges de and was the first production without Glass or Wilson personally involved 23 The opera was also staged at the Grand Theatre de Geneve in 2019 as part of La Batie performing arts festival That production was directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca it 24 Synopsis editFrom the beginning of Glass and Wilson s collaboration they insisted on portraying the icon purely as a historical figure in the absence of a storyline attached to his image While they did incorporate symbols from Einstein s life within the opera s scenery characters and music they intentionally chose not to give the opera a specific plot 25 This is in accord with Wilson s formalist approach which he asserts creates more truth on stage than naturalist theater Wilson structured Einstein on the Beach as a repeating sequence of three different kinds of space Between major acts are shorter entr actes known as knee plays a signature technique that Wilson has applied throughout his oeuvre 26 Propelling idea of non plot within Einstein on the Beach its libretto employs solfege syllables numbers and short sections of poetry In an interview Glass comments that he originally intended for his audience to construct personal connections with Einstein as a character and with the music that he assigns to the icon 2 For example the music within the first of the opera s Knee Plays features repeated numbers accompanied by an electric organ Glass states that these numbers and solfege syllables were used as placeholders for texts by the singers to memorize their parts and were kept instead of replacing them with texts 2 This numerical repetition however offers an interpretation as a reference to the mathematical and scientific breakthroughs made by Einstein himself Of further reference to the icon s image everything on the originally staged set of Einstein on the Beach from costumes to lighting depicts specific aspects that refer to Einstein s life 27 Overall the music assigned to Einstein demonstrates a circular process a repeating cycle that constantly delays resolution This process uses both additive and subtractive formulas The three main scenes within the opera Train Trial and Field Spaceship allude to Einstein s hypotheses about his theory of relativity and his unified field theory 27 Specifically themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons science and AM radio The opera consists of nine connected 20 minute scenes in four acts separated by Knee Plays Five Knee Plays frame the opera s structure and appear in between acts while also functioning as the opening and closing scenes Glass defines a Knee Play as an interlude between acts and as the knee referring to the joining function that humans anatomical knees perform 2 While the Knee Plays helped to create the necessary time to change the scenery of Wilson s seven sets these interludes also served a musical function David Cunningham a Glass scholar writes that the intermittence of Glass s Knee Plays amongst the opera s four acts serves as a constant motif in the whole work 27 The opera requires a cast of two female one male and one male child in speaking roles for the Wilson production a 16 person SATB chamber chorus with an outstanding soprano soloist and a smaller tenor solo part three reed players flute doubling piccolo and bass clarinet soprano saxophone doubling flute tenor saxophone doubling alto saxophone and flute solo violin and two synthesizers electronic organs 7 The orchestration was originally tailored to the five members of the Philip Glass Ensemble plus the solo violin Structure editThe work is structured as follows 2 Prologue solo electric organ Knee Play 1 electric organ SATB chorus Act 1 Scene 1 Train piccolo soprano and tenor saxophones solo soprano and alto voices SATB chorus two electric organs Scene 2 Trial Entrance three flutes soprano and alto chorus electric organ Mr Bojangles a solo violin two flutes bass clarinet SATB chorus two electric organs Paris All Men Are Equal solo electric organ Knee Play 2 solo violin Act 2 Scene 1 Dance 1 Field with Spaceship piccolo soprano and alto saxophones solo soprano and alto voices two electric organs Scene 2 Night Train solo soprano and tenor voices two flutes bass clarinet SATB chorus electric organ Knee Play 3 SATB chorus a cappella Act 3 Scene 1 Trial 2 Prison Prematurely Air Conditioned Supermarket SATB chorus electric organ Ensemble three flutes two electric organs I Feel the Earth Move soprano saxophone bass clarinet Scene 2 Dance 2 Field with Spaceship solo violin solo soprano SATB chorus electric organ Knee Play 4 solo violin tenor and bass chorus Act 4 Scene 1 Building Train two electric organs improvisatory woodwinds and chorus solo tenor saxophone Scene 2 Bed Cadenza solo electric organ Prelude solo electric organ Aria solo soprano electric organ Scene 3 Spaceship flute tenor saxophone bass clarinet solo violin solo soprano voice SATB chorus two electric organs Knee Play 5 solo violin soprano and alto chorus electric organ Recordings editProfessional ratings1979 Tomato LPReview scoresSourceRatingChristgau s Record GuideB 29 Pitchfork10 10 30 Two complete recordings of the opera have been made the first in 1978 initially released on the Tomato label TOM 4 2901 in 1979 and later reissued by CBS Masterworks followed by Sony Classical both M4K 38875 the second in 1993 released that same year on the Nonesuch label 79323 The 1978 recording was held to 165 minutes in order to fit onto four LP records i e the opening scene s repeats were considerably shortened The 1993 recording encompassed 200 minutes freed by the technology of the compact disc although it was released on three CDs instead of the original s four Michael Riesman conducted both recordings In 1978 Lucinda Childs Sheryl Sutton Paul Mann and Samuel M Johnson performed the opera s texts with Philip Glass Ensemble performer Iris Hiskey taking the soprano solo In 1993 Childs and Sutton repeated their roles while Gregory Dolbashian and Jasper McGruder replaced Mann and the late Mr Johnson s roles respectively Patricia Schuman sang the soprano role 31 32 Most of the participants in the Nonesuch recording had performed in Einstein on the Beach during its 1992 world tour A 77 minute highlights CD from the 1984 Brooklyn Academy of Music performances accompanied by a DVD documentary was released by Philip Glass s personal label Orange Mountain Music in early September 2012 33 and an extended recording 217 minutes long was released at the same time but available only by download from the iTunes Store In October 2013 Pacifica Radio released a two disc set of a 1976 interview with Glass and Wilson conducted at The Kitchen and excerpts from a rehearsal of some excerpts from the opera also performed at The Kitchen on March 19 1976 34 The violin part for the work has been performed by Robert Brown in the live 1976 production Paul Zukofsky in the 1979 recording Tison Street in the live 1984 production Gregory Fulkerson 35 in the live 1992 production and 1993 recording and an interchanging performance of Jennifer Koh and Antoine Silverman during the 2012 16 production A shortened version of I Feel the Earth Move along with three other pieces from the opera were chosen to appear on the Philip Glass album Songs from the Trilogy Anton Batagov recorded 3 transcription pieces Scene 2 Trail 1 from act 1 scene 2 Night Train from act 2 and Knee Play 5 from this work on solo piano in his album Prophecies 2016 on Orange Mountain Music label A 270 minute recording from January 2014 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris was released on DVD and Blu ray in October 2016 36 In popular culture editThe title was used as inspiration for the 1994 Counting Crows song Einstein on the Beach For an Eggman Excerpts were used as background music for several shots in season 3 episode 5 2017 of the Mr Robot television series 37 In the episode Out with Dad of the TV series Frasier the title character an opera lover says You see there s a stunning woman who comes to the opera on the same nights we do She has the box right across from ours We ve flirted a bit from a distance I have laughed with her during Figaro cried with her during Tosca I even had a dream about her during Einstein on the Beach 38 Excerpts from the movement Knee Play 1 are played during a montage sequence in the 2005 Alex Gibney documentary film Enron The Smartest Guys in the Room 39 An edited version of Knee Play 1 was also used in the launch advertisement for Orange S A in 1994 40 41 At the 2013 Drum Corps International World Championship the first place winners Carolina Crown earned a perfect score in the brass section when they performed parts of Knee Play 3 Trial Prison Spaceship and Knee Play 5 42 Among the works of Peter Schickele s fictitious alter ego P D Q Bach is one called Einstein on the Fritz S E mc2 Schickele was a friend of Philip and was a Juilliard classmate of his Helen Pickett s 2012 When Love created on the Dance Theatre of Harlem uses Knee Play 5 43 Notes edit Mr Bojangles refers to the man Bill Robinson and the song Mr Bojangles 28 References edit a b Rockwell John 1 August 1976 Robert Wilson s Five Hour Operatic Dream The New York Times Vol 125 no 43289 Archived from the original on 8 August 2022 a b c d e f Glass Philip Jones Robert T 1995 Music by Philip Glass Da Capo Press p 40 ISBN 978 0 306 80636 0 OCLC 477227754 Griffel Margaret Ross 2013 Operas in English A Dictionary Vol 1 Scarecrow Press p 146 ISBN 978 0 8108 8272 0 OCLC 1248771681 Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts Stanford University Libraries 2008 Retrieved 2012 04 14 Glass Philip 1978 Notes Einstein on the Beach Performing Arts Journal 2 3 63 70 doi 10 2307 3245363 ISSN 0735 8393 JSTOR 3245363 S2CID 194880860 Shyer Laurence 1989 Robert Wilson and His Collaborators Theatre Communications Group p 220 ISBN 9780930452964 Retrieved 14 April 2010 a b c d e Dunvagen Music Publishers Einstein on the Beach Recording Philipglass com Nonesuch Records 1993 Retrieved 2010 03 01 Lavezzoli Peter 2006 The Dawn of Indian Music in the West Continuum p 133 ISBN 9780826418159 Retrieved 1 March 2010 Rockwell John 17 December 1984 Einstein Returns Briefly The New York Times Vol 134 no 46261 Page Tim 2012 Einstein on the Beach Philip Glass Robert Wilson 1979 PDF National Register Library of Congress Retrieved 14 November 2023 Swed Mark November 18 2020 Philip Glass and Einstein on the Beach How one opera changed everything Los Angeles Times Retrieved 14 November 2023 Barnes Clive 23 November 1976 Einstein on the Beach Transforms Boredom Into Memorable Theater The New York Times Vol 126 no 43403 Retrieved 12 November 2019 Stuttgart State Opera performance programme 1988 At the Shore Although the Water Is Shallower by Allan Kozinn The New York Times December 8 2007 Gerard Mortier resigns from New York City Opera Latimesblogs latimes com November 7 2008 Retrieved 2010 03 01 Einstein on the Beach Tour Pomegranate Arts Inc 2012 01 24 Archived from the original on 2011 08 24 Einstein on the Beach What s On Arts Centre Melbourne Retrieved 2 October 2013 Einstein on the Beach Gwangju Robert Wilson calendar Einstein on the Beach in South Korea Archived from the original on 2015 11 17 Retrieved 2015 10 18 Einstein on the Beach Pomegranate Arts Inc 2012 01 24 Archived from the original on 2012 01 15 Corpsreps com The Drum Corps Repertoire Database corpsreps com corpsreps com Retrieved 10 March 2015 Einstein on the Beach broadcast live on Culturebox from Theatre du Chatelet on January 7 2014 PDF Einstein on the Beach production details Opernhaus Dortmund April 2017 in German Grand Theatre de Geneve 2019 Einstein on the Beach Schwarz K Robert 2008 Minimalists Phaidon p 135 ISBN 978 0 7148 4773 3 OCLC 966086574 Wilson Robert Kuhn Hans P Fairbrother Trevor J 1991 Robert Wilson s Vision Museum of Fine Arts p 120 ISBN 978 0 87846 324 4 OCLC 243725042 a b c Cunningham David 1997 Einstein on the Beach In Kostelanetz Richard ed Writings on Glass Essays Interviews Criticism Simon amp Schuster Prentice Hall International p 153 ISBN 978 0 02 864657 2 OCLC 670529591 American Gothic by Hilton Als The New Yorker September 22 2008 Christgau Robert 1981 Christgau s Record Guide Rock Albums of the Seventies Ticknor amp Fields ISBN 978 0 89919 025 9 OCLC 473083697 Walls Seth Colter 14 November 2016 Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings Album Review Pitchfork Retrieved 12 December 2021 Jasper McGruder wnyc org Retrieved August 5 2021 Einstein on The Beach liner notes discogs com Retrieved August 5 2021 Philip Glass amp Robert Wilson Einstein on the Beach CD DVD ASIN B009173UBY Discovering Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach by bdeshazor Pacifica Radio 14 October 2013 Gregory Fulkerson at Melody Bunting International Einstein on the Beach Chatelet 2014 Opus Arte Naxos Records OCLC 962027757 Mr Robot eps3 4 runtime err0r r00 TV Episode soundtrack IMDb Retrieved November 12 2017 Out With Dad Frasier Transcript kacl780 net Retrieved 22 July 2023 Enron the smartest guys in tHe room Trilha sonora 2005 Ringostrack com Retrieved 14 June 2022 Orange Launch Ad 1994 YouTube Orange S A Woodford Stephen My Favourite Five Ads The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Retrieved 15 March 2022 Michael Boo April 23 2018 Spotlight of the Week 2013 Carolina Crown www dci org Retrieved 2019 07 29 Dance Theatre of Harlem Dance Theatre of Harlem Retrieved 2023 04 24 External links editWork details philipglass com Analysis Archived 2007 01 07 at the Wayback Machine by Nicolas Sceaux 2002 Photographs from the world premiere of Einstein on the Beach Avignon Festival 1976 Portal nbsp Opera Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Einstein on the Beach amp oldid 1210875826, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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