I was wrapped up in Einstein on the Beach from start to finish, but that's not to say that the occasional rogue thought didn't slip in, and one of those came late in the piece, the music having subsided to a single organ-sounding synth line, none of the company on stage, backdrop wholly black except for a large white bar rotating slowly from the horizontal to the vertical; the thought, and its immediate answer, were 'so does the emperor have any clothes?', and 'absolutely yes'.
I mean really, wow, this was an experience beyond words. I've liked Philip Glass for a long time and Einstein, a four hour plus abstract modern opera, must be the high watermark in that regard (a search of extemporanea reveals that I had this to say back in 2010 - ... "Einstein on the Beach" (seeing a good live performance of which remains one of my mostly fondly cherished cultural hopes) ... ) - so I was really anticipating this, and it met those high expectations.
Working on the level of abstraction and suggestion yet tapping into something direct and immediate too...which goes part and parcel with the surrealist imagery (especially that first act with the train, which is like something straight out of Magritte). It is dreamlike, and also intensely human for all of the starkly abstract imagery and repetition; seeing the connection to those images and to the actions of the performers has put Glass's music in a new light for me too. Genuinely a rare, indeed unique, experience - just what one values in art.
(w/ Jarrod, Al and Steph N)
I mean really, wow, this was an experience beyond words. I've liked Philip Glass for a long time and Einstein, a four hour plus abstract modern opera, must be the high watermark in that regard (a search of extemporanea reveals that I had this to say back in 2010 - ... "Einstein on the Beach" (seeing a good live performance of which remains one of my mostly fondly cherished cultural hopes) ... ) - so I was really anticipating this, and it met those high expectations.
Working on the level of abstraction and suggestion yet tapping into something direct and immediate too...which goes part and parcel with the surrealist imagery (especially that first act with the train, which is like something straight out of Magritte). It is dreamlike, and also intensely human for all of the starkly abstract imagery and repetition; seeing the connection to those images and to the actions of the performers has put Glass's music in a new light for me too. Genuinely a rare, indeed unique, experience - just what one values in art.
(w/ Jarrod, Al and Steph N)
