“There is [a Philip] Glass opening upon us that is also a closing—of a circle in this composer’s 50-year career,” writes Zachary Woolfe in Thursday’s (11/7) New York Times. “His classic trilogy of the 1970s and ‘80s has finally been surveyed at the Metropolitan Opera, his country’s pre-eminent opera house. Einstein on the Beach, Mr. Glass’s epochal epic, came to the Met in 1976. A deliriously received Met production of Satyagraha opened in 2008, and his Akhnaten runs there through Dec. 7. ‘I feel surprise,’ he said … when asked whether he felt pride or even vindication at the belated milestone. ‘Really, truly surprise. I have a whole string of operas after that, some more successful, some less. I’ve certainly written a lot of them. I haven’t looked back that much. I’ve just kept going.’ At 82, Mr. Glass does remarkably little dwelling on the past. In fact, he is in the process of curtailing his busy touring schedule, so that he can focus on what is already a prodigious rate of composition…. At Lincoln Center … he is well represented this fall: In addition to the Akhnaten production, his new King Lear Overture opened the season at the New York Philharmonic.”
Posted November 8, 2019
