Einstein on the Beach
Encyclopedia
Einstein on the Beach is an opera
that premiered on July 25, 1976 at the Avignon Festival in France
, scored and written by Philip Glass
and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson
. It also contains writings by Christopher Knowles
, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs
. Einstein on the Beach is described by Glass as an "Opera in four acts for ensemble, chorus and soloists".
This is Glass's first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours (a little under three and a half hours on CD) to complete, with no intermission. Given the length of the opera the audience is free to enter and leave as they desire.
Einstein's musical score became the first in a loosely related thematic trilogy, followed by Satyagraha
(1980) and Akhnaten
(1983). These three operas were described by Glass as "portrait" operas that portray men whose personal vision transformed the thinking of their times through the power of ideas rather than by military force.
or Adolf Hitler
, whom Glass outright rejected, while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi
(later the central figure of his opera Satyagraha
). Albert Einstein
was the eventual compromise.
Einstein on the Beach premiered on July 25, 1976 at the Avignon Festival in France
, performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble
. The opera was also staged that summer in Hamburg
, Paris
, Belgrade
, Venice
, Brussels
, Rotterdam
. In November 1976, Einstein was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House
in New York
.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music
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
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 House, Germany. As with the premiere, this version was also conducted by Michael Riesman.
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 theater at Princeton University. It subsequently toured to Frankfurt, Melbourne, Barcelona, Madrid, Tokyo, Brooklyn (BAM
) and Paris.
A revival with the participation of all the original collaborators was commissioned by New York City Opera to open their 2009/2010 season. When General Manager designate Gerard Mortier withdrew from NYCO, the revival, along with the rest of Mr. Mortier's programming, was canceled. This revival was also supported by co-commissioners Chatalet, Het Muziektheater and English National Opera.
The team that had organized the New York City Opera production has put together another group of commissioners and presenters to remount "Einstein". It will be mounted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in January 2012. It will premiere at Opera Berlioz in Monpellier, France in March 2012. It will subsequently tour to the Barbican in London, England, the Luminato Festival in Toronto, ON, Canada, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cal Performances' Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, and Hetmuziektheater in Amsterdam. Other dates are being explored.
The violin part for the work has been performed by Tison Street
, Gregory Fulkerson and Paul Zukofsky
.
syllables, numbers, and short sections of poetry. In an interview, Glass comments that he originally intended for his audience to construct personal connections with both Einstein as a character and also with the music with that he assigns to the icon. 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. This numerical repetition, however, offers an obvious 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 Einstein set, from costumes to lighting, depicts specific aspects that refer to Einstein's life.
Overall, the music assigned to Einstein demonstrates a circular process which becomes 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 unified field theory. Specifically, themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons, science, and AM radio.
The opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes 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". 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".
The opera requires a cast of 2 female, 1 male, and 1 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; 3 reed players: flute (doubling piccolo and bass clarinet), soprano saxophone (doubling flute), tenor saxophone (doubling alto saxophone); solo violin, and 2 synthesizers/electronic organs. The orchestration was originally tailored to the five members of the Philip Glass Ensemble, plus the solo violin.
and bass clarinet
, omitting the electronic keyboard
used in most of the segments in Einstein on the Beach. A poem by Christopher Knowles
is read over the musical soprano saxophone and bass clarinet line and in the poem's meanderings, it mentions such "TV personalities" as David Cassidy
. A shortened version of this piece was chosen along with three other selections from Einstein on the Beach to appear on another Philip Glass album Songs from the Trilogy
, which also included selections from Glass's operas Satyagraha
and Akhnaten
. The section's title is a reference to a Carole King
song of the same name, from her album Tapestry.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
that premiered on July 25, 1976 at the Avignon Festival in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, scored and written by Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
. It also contains writings by Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles is an American poet. In 1976, his poetry was used by Robert Wilson for the avant-garde minimalist Philip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach In 2004 Knowles stayed in Long Island for the summer working with Robert Wilson. For one week the Harty family stayed in the house he was...
, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
. Einstein on the Beach is described by Glass as an "Opera in four acts for ensemble, chorus and soloists".
This is Glass's first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours (a little under three and a half hours on CD) to complete, with no intermission. Given the length of the opera the audience is free to enter and leave as they desire.
Einstein's musical score became the first in a loosely related thematic trilogy, followed by Satyagraha
Satyagraha (opera)
Satyagraha is a 1979 opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.Loosely based on the life of Mohandas K...
(1980) and Akhnaten
Akhnaten (opera)
Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the pharaoh Akhenaten , written by the American minimalist composer Philip Glass in 1983. Akhnaten had its world premiere on March 24, 1984 at the Stuttgart State Opera, under the German title Echnaton...
(1983). These three operas were described by Glass as "portrait" operas that portray men whose personal vision transformed the thinking of their times through the power of ideas rather than by military force.
Composition and performance history
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 ChaplinCharlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
or Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, whom Glass outright rejected, while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
(later the central figure of his opera Satyagraha
Satyagraha (opera)
Satyagraha is a 1979 opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.Loosely based on the life of Mohandas K...
). Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
was the eventual compromise.
Einstein on the Beach premiered on July 25, 1976 at the Avignon Festival in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble
Philip Glass Ensemble
The Philip Glass Ensemble is a musical group founded by composer Philip Glass in 1968 to serve as a performance outlet for his experimental minimalist music. The Ensemble's instrumentation became a hallmark of Glass' early minimalist style...
. The opera was also staged that summer in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. In November 1976, Einstein was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
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
Achim Freyer
Achim Freyer is a German stage director, set designer and painter. A protege of Bertolt Brecht, Freyer has become one of the world's leading opera directors, working throughout Europe and, since 2002, in the United States, principally with the Los Angeles Opera...
(who had staged the World Premiere of Glass's Akhnaten in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
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 House, Germany. As with the premiere, this version was also conducted by Michael Riesman.
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 theater at Princeton University. It subsequently toured to Frankfurt, Melbourne, Barcelona, Madrid, Tokyo, Brooklyn (BAM
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
) and Paris.
A revival with the participation of all the original collaborators was commissioned by New York City Opera to open their 2009/2010 season. When General Manager designate Gerard Mortier withdrew from NYCO, the revival, along with the rest of Mr. Mortier's programming, was canceled. This revival was also supported by co-commissioners Chatalet, Het Muziektheater and English National Opera.
The team that had organized the New York City Opera production has put together another group of commissioners and presenters to remount "Einstein". It will be mounted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in January 2012. It will premiere at Opera Berlioz in Monpellier, France in March 2012. It will subsequently tour to the Barbican in London, England, the Luminato Festival in Toronto, ON, Canada, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cal Performances' Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, and Hetmuziektheater in Amsterdam. Other dates are being explored.
The violin part for the work has been performed by Tison Street
Tison Street
Tison C. Street is an American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist.He studied violin with Einar Hansen from 1951 to 1959. He later studied composition at Harvard University with Leon Kirchner and David Del Tredici, receiving B.A. and M.A...
, Gregory Fulkerson and Paul Zukofsky
Paul Zukofsky
Paul Zukofsky is an American violinist and conductor known for his work in the field of contemporary classical music.-Career:...
.
Synopsis
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. Propelling idea of "non-plot" within Einstein on the Beach, its libretto employs solfegeSolfege
In music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...
syllables, numbers, and short sections of poetry. In an interview, Glass comments that he originally intended for his audience to construct personal connections with both Einstein as a character and also with the music with that he assigns to the icon. 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. This numerical repetition, however, offers an obvious 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 Einstein set, from costumes to lighting, depicts specific aspects that refer to Einstein's life.
Overall, the music assigned to Einstein demonstrates a circular process which becomes 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 unified field theory. Specifically, themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons, science, and AM radio.
The opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes 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". 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".
The opera requires a cast of 2 female, 1 male, and 1 male child in speaking roles (for the Wilson production); a 16 person SATB
SATB
In music, SATB is an initialism for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, defining the voices required by a chorus or choir to perform a particular musical work...
chamber chorus with an outstanding soprano soloist and a smaller tenor solo part; 3 reed players: flute (doubling piccolo and bass clarinet), soprano saxophone (doubling flute), tenor saxophone (doubling alto saxophone); solo violin, and 2 synthesizers/electronic organs. The orchestration was originally tailored to the five members of the Philip Glass Ensemble, plus the solo violin.
Structure
The work is structured as follows:- Knee 1
- Train 1
- Trial 1
- Entrance
- "Mr. Bojangles"
- "All Men Are Equal"
- Knee 2
- Dance 1
- Night Train
- Knee 3
- Trial 2/Prison
- "Prematurely Air-Conditioned Supermarket"
- Ensemble
- I Feel the Earth Move
- Dance 2
- Knee 4
- Building
- Bed
- Cadenza
- Prelude
- Aria
- Spaceship
- Knee 5
I Feel the Earth Move
"I Feel the Earth Move" is the third section in the Trial 2/Prison section of the opera. The section is written in the same style as the rest of the opera, but has an instrumentation of soprano saxophoneSoprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
and bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
, omitting the electronic keyboard
Electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
used in most of the segments in Einstein on the Beach. A poem by Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles
Christopher Knowles is an American poet. In 1976, his poetry was used by Robert Wilson for the avant-garde minimalist Philip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach In 2004 Knowles stayed in Long Island for the summer working with Robert Wilson. For one week the Harty family stayed in the house he was...
is read over the musical soprano saxophone and bass clarinet line and in the poem's meanderings, it mentions such "TV personalities" as David Cassidy
David Cassidy
David Bruce Cassidy is an American actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his role as the character of Keith Partridge in the 1970s musical/sitcom The Partridge Family. He was one of pop culture's most celebrated teen idols, enjoying a successful pop career in the 1970s, and...
. A shortened version of this piece was chosen along with three other selections from Einstein on the Beach to appear on another Philip Glass album Songs from the Trilogy
Songs from the Trilogy
Songs from the Trilogy is a 1989 compilation album of songs from Philip Glass’ operas Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten...
, which also included selections from Glass's operas Satyagraha
Satyagraha (opera)
Satyagraha is a 1979 opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.Loosely based on the life of Mohandas K...
and Akhnaten
Akhnaten (opera)
Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the pharaoh Akhenaten , written by the American minimalist composer Philip Glass in 1983. Akhnaten had its world premiere on March 24, 1984 at the Stuttgart State Opera, under the German title Echnaton...
. The section's title is a reference to a Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
song of the same name, from her album Tapestry.