Jim Panttaja

This week we got closer to the opera - no longer AT&T Park with a hot dog and a beer - but in the Opera House with Appomattox the new Philip Glass opera.

The ambiance is different - we had walked to AT&T Park, but arrived at the Opera House by cab (the driver didn’t know where the opera house was - but fortunately, we did). We didn’t have a hot dog, but there was coffee. The opera started at the civilized time of 7:30 (we aren’t night people).

As in Samson and Delilah, the presentation of this opera is often about textures, and Philip Glass’ music added to those textures. There are layers in his music - sometimes repetitive, sometimes supporting the lyrics, other times across the lyrics. The sets added texture, and the chorus added texture. The fall of Richmond was a great ensemble scene with subtle jestures and vignettes - it was one of the strongest scenes. And many of the other vignettes - the late scene with Edgar Ray Killen, the civil rights marchers scene, and many of the chorus scenes were strong. They couldn’t stand by themselves - but added to the texture of the evening.

Our seats were great - but we didn’t have a good view of the orchestra - I did watch the basses who had some great sections where they in unison did a repetive motion to the top frets - and then back down on the neck of the bass. It was a great dance. And the sounds of the bass saxophone (I assume that is what it was) were incredible - deep - almost human sounds.

As with all composers, Philip Glass has a vocabulary that he uses - and you could recognize snippets that were familiar from having heard Kundun, The Hours, and having played his Melodies for Saxophone - and listened to other music from this album.

We are getting more comfortable at getting around San Francisco