Glass was commissioned to write an opera about Johannes Kepler. He did this thing. It was performed. The performance was recorded. I watched the recording. Are you fascinated by this chain of events? I know I am.
(I wonder how much an established composer gets paid for a commissioned opera. What are the terms of the contract? It seems like you couldn't specify too closely, since that would strangle the creativity that's the thing you're presumably paying for, but for instance, to what extent can you dictate the length of the thing? Are composers paid by the note? Difficult to say.)
Well, it's recognizably Glass. All Glass, I'd say, is extremely recognizably glass. Pretty sure there's no other composer I could so instantly identify. I suppose if you were so inclined, you could spin that as a criticism: if he always sounds more or less the same, he must be very limited and gimmicky as a composer! Indeed, I think that's one of the main things haters say about him (other than "he's boring"). I don't know. You can say that if you want. But whether or not you're right, I still think he's great.
I'm not sure about this one, however. Short of Einstein on the Beach, if you even want to count that, this is definitely the most plotless Glass opera I've ever seen. Kepler and other scientists Keple around. They sing about science and religion (which people didn't really distinguish between in his time). The libretto is in a mixture of German and Latin, I think from Kepler's own writings. It also includes poetry by Andreas Gryphius. As a whole, it's sometimes arresting--as how could it not be?--but somehow I wanted something to happen. Or for there to be some kind of overt drama. I may be willfully missing the point of Glass, which I should really know by now, by saying that, but it's how I thought.
I mean, I certainly don't regret seeing it, especially given how few of Glass' many operas are available in any form. But I would probably consider it the least of those I have seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment