Einstein on the beach

Olga Oseth

Studio for Interrelated Media

Musm 435

Dr. Twombly

Blog no.1  on “Einstein on the beach”

            After doing some research on the “Einstein on the beach” I found out that the composers call it an opera because it is pieces and fragments. This opera was premiered in 1976 in France, it consists of four movements that are connected by a series called “knee play”, and it marked the international breakthrough for its creators and changed what audiences might expect from opera, theater or performance art. Many critics have called this opera “timeless” because it is a one of a kind product that should be cherished for life.  There are only few people that have experienced this opera live.  This piece defies the rules of conventional opera. This piece does not use the traditional orchestral arrangement; it uses synthesizers, woodwinds and voices of the Philip Glass Ensemble. The work uses powerful recurrent images that are shown through dance that was created by choreographer Lucinda Childs and constructed in the classical principle of theme and variation. This piece was the first collaboration between Glass and Wilson. This is Glass’s first and longest opera score it is approximately 4 and a half hours.  The reason why this piece was created was because Glass and Wilson decided to do a collaborative work together and decided on an opera that was 4 to 5 hours in length. Glass and Wilson insisted on portraying historical image for the opera. Even though they chose symbols from Einstein’s life they decided against having a plot to the opera. The words that are used in the opera consist of numbers, solfege syllables and short sections of poetry. There is even one-hour documentary movie made on the play because it is such an inspiring and changing image of Opera. The music assigned to Einstein demonstrated a circular process, which becomes a repeating cycle that constantly delays resolution. This process uses both additive and subtractive formulas. Specifically themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons science and AM radio. Opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes. This opera requires a cast of 2 female and 1 male and 1 male child in speaking roles, a 16 person SATB chamber chorus with great soprano solo part and a smaller tenor part and three reed players. From watching couple parts of this play I actually understood the topic for our project better and would love to see the play in real life. I think this play is def. good meditation piece, because when we were watching it today in class I found myself relax as well as think about other topics. I think the music in this opera helped the script more than the visual aspects to describe Einstein's thoughts.