# Operas by Philip Glass



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I have always been under the impression that Glass' music is monotonous and repetitious, given the very little I know of him.

Today I saw a performance of the Netherlands Dance Theater and they choreographed one of his pieces, part of the sound track for The Hours.

I found it beautiful, maybe because the repeated structures made more sense when aided by the dancing, which made it more interesting.

Then I became curious about his music, and what better than opera to bring about other elements so that the piece doesn't sound boring? To my surprise, he has composed 16 operas (I had only heard of three of them which I marked with an asterisk).

Here is the list:

1,000 Airplanes on the Roof
Akhnaten*
Appomattox
The Civil Wars: A Tree is Best Measured when it's Down
Einstein on the Beach*
Galileo Galilei
Hydrogen Jukebox
The Juniper Tree
Kepler
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
Monsters of Grace
The Photographer
Satyagraha*
The Sound of a Voice
The Voyage
Waiting for the Barbarians

Can anybody please tell me more about some of these and make recommendations, preferably on DVD?

Thanks


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

My very favourite Philip Glass opera is Akhnaten, it's beautiful and evocative, it deals with an interesting character and I love it. I saw it in the early Eighties and didn't appreciate it then, and I wish I had because as I understand there is some weird stipulation from Glass himself that it can't be filmed for DVD.

I'm quoting a post from somewhere else which I can't mention because the wrath of Alma will descend on me:



> I have been in touch with Glass's agent about AKHNATEN, as we had hopes (and still have them) to stage the piece in Russia.
> 
> The fees for doing so were high, but not impossibly high.
> 
> ...


I see that Kepler is coming out on DVD, so someone must have been prepared to pay for that, surprsing as it's a less known opera.


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## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

I know Richard Croft played Satyagraha in a Met prodcution a few years ago, but I don't think it's on DVD. However I have a couple of showcase performance clips on my youtube channel:


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## steph thevideoguy (Apr 14, 2011)

I've not seen any of his Operas on DVD before but I've been a fan for years.

I am currently selling my Glass collection though. You should check it out.

http://shop.ebay.ca/stephthevideoguy/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25


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