wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave.
Oct. 1, 2002 3-5 at 7:30pm
Airs Tuesday, October 1, 2002 at 7:30pm on 93.9 FM
John Schaefer, host

Minimalist icon Philip Glass has been at his best when bringing history's most original thinkers to the opera stage, from Albert Einstein (Einstein on the Beach) and Mahatma Ghandi (Satyagraha), to the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhnaten (Akhnaten). So it makes perfect sense that the revolutionary Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei is given his moment in the footlights. Yet in typical Glass fashion, this is hardly your conventional opera.

Galileo Galilei--which receives its New York premiere by opening the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival--is adapted from the brilliant scientist's turbulent biography and surviving letters, and focuses on his support of the Copernican planetary theory, which got him in much trouble with the Catholic Church. Mirroring the scientific concept of reversal, the opera examines Galileo's life as a series of reminiscences, presented in reverse chronological order. It ends with the young Galileo watching a performance of a work composed by his father, Vincenzo Galileo.

Mary Zimmerman, Tony Award-winning director of Metamorphoses, wrote the opera's libretto with input from the composer and the redoubtable librettist Arnold Weinstein. William Lumpkin conducts the Eos Orchestra; Dan Ostling oversees set design. The staging features veteran Glass vocalists John Duykers and Eugene Perry. Note: The October 1 performance is preceded by a talk with Glass and Zimmerman in the BAM Rose Cinema.

For more information on Galileo Galilei, call 718-636-4100 or visit the BAM Web site.

Additional background on the opera can be found at the Philip Glass Web site.