World Premiere of Glass Opera

Posted by Sarah Canice Funke Oct 27, 2007

At 70, Philip Glass is still going strong, adding another opera to the more than 20 already in his repertoire. The latest opera, Appomattox, deals with a theme very familiar to American audiences: the Civil War. The title comes from the name of the courthouse where Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee signed the papers that ended the four-year conflict between North and South. But, Philip Glass notes, the strife didn't end with a piece of paper. Cultural tensions still exist to this day between the northern U.S. and the South. The new opera, while explicitly focused on big names--Lincoln, Grant, and Lee--that died over a century ago, still sets the stage for critical thinking on our own age, such as the more recent 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Philip Glass also draws upon his own experience growing up in a segregated Baltimore during WWII. He recalls the fear and anxiety that the women and children at home felt for their absent loved ones.

The opera received its world premiere during a festival celebration of Philip Glass' music in San Francisco this month.

To hear musical excerpts from the opera, please read the NPR article.