PHILIP GLASS

Premiered in Milan in 2002, this 90 minute long evening represents a unique possibility to experience the Philip Glass Ensemble live and unplugged playing works composed by Philip Glass over the last 30 years. 

The Philip Glass Ensemble plays a selection of  works from the following repertoire: 

DANCE #9, IN THE UPPER ROOM
Commissioned by Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation in 1986, this work received its world premiere at the 1986 Ravinia Festival.  

MUSIC IN SIMILAR MOTION (1969)
Originally composed for the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1969 it is the earliest composition to continue to hold a place in the Ensemble’s repertoire.

FACADES, GLASSWORK (1983)
Facades was written in 1981, originally to accompany a scene in the film Koyaanisqatsi.  The title refers to the facades of buildings in the Wall Street area of New York City.  

RAISING THE SAIL, THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) Music from the score to The Truman Show, a popular and critically acclaimed film directed by Peter Weir. 

 

SECOND MOVEMENT, LOW SYMPHONY (1992)
Low Symphony, composed in the spring of 1992, is based on the record LOW by David Bowie and Brian Eno, first released in 1977.  

Mosque and Temple, POWAQQATSI (1988)
As the second part of the Godfrey Reggio Qatsi trilogy- Qatsi being a Hopi Indian word for “life”- Powaqqatsi focuses on the negative transformation of land-based, human scale societies into technology-driven, urban clones.   

FUNERAL, AKHNATEN (1984)
An opera with libretto by Philip Glass, Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, and Richard Riddell, is set in the year 1375 B.C. and follows the reign of the Akhnaten, who challenged the social order of his day by presenting the sun god Aten, as a wholly abstract idea of God.  

Songs from MONSTERS OF GRACE (1997)
From Monsters of Grace (1997)  by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson 

Songs from HYDROGEN JUKEBOX (1990)
A portrait of America that covers the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, seen by the collaborators Glass, Ginsberg and Sirlin:  the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, drugs, eastern philosophy, environmental awareness.

 

PRODUCTION DATES
World Premiere
Milan, Italy, Teatro dal Verme
2 July 2002
Salamanca, Spain, Teatro Liceo
8 July 2002
Madrid, Spain, Centro Cultural Conde Duque
13 July 2002