John Adams, Harmonium
Genre: Classical - Year: 1984 (Nonesuch records, 2005)
- Listened to at: Home via Rhapsody
- Tom says: “…you don’t merely appreciate the craft and the way the words figure in, you feel it in your gut.”
John Adams, The Death of Klinghoffer
Genre: Opera - Year: 1991 (Nonesuch records, 2005)
- Listened to at: Home via Rhapsody
- Tom says: “His music is as taut as the soundtrack of an adventure film….”
Aaron says:
My classical knowledge is particularly lacking when it comes to 20th century composers. I was familiar with John Adams by name and reputation, but hadn’t listened to any of his work.
Harmonium in particular blew me away. My first thought was “Wow… it’s like Philip Glass–only accessible.” Tom is completely right: you do feel these giant moving chords in your gut. The music supports poems by Emily Dickinson, which puts powerful words and powerful music on the same level. If I saw Harmonium on the Oregon Symphony’s schedule, I’d buy tickets in a heartbeat.
The Death of Klinghoffer is a bit trickier. For starters, there’s the subject matter: The hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985. Leon Klinghoffer was killed by the hijackers. The opera opened to protests by Jewish groups who objected to an opera that humanized Palestinian terrorists, and it hasn’t been performed much in the U.S.
Stephen Sondheim, whose works have been regulars at The Met, City Opera, and Broadway, has been asked repeatedly to explain the difference between musical theater and opera. His answer goes something like this: “It’s opera when it’s performed in an opera house.” I’d add a second clause there: It’s opera when it’s performed by opera singers.
Opera is a performance style that puts the music ahead of the words. Composers are credited well above librettists. (Alice Goodman wrote the libretto to Klinghoffer by the way. See how I didn’t mention that until now?) Most opera performed in the U.S. is performed in Italian, French, or German, with English subtitles. Here’s where it gets weird: Even English operas are performed with English subtitles!
Opera singers put the music so far ahead of the words that they don’t care whether you understand them, even if you speak their language. And opera companies wonder why their work isn’t accessible to young people. In the case of a work like Klinghoffer, which strives to tell both sides of a complex story and depict terrorists as humans instead of one-sided villains, opera’s treatment of lyrics as a second-class citizen is a serious detriment.
At this point I should note that the 2005 Nonesuch recording I listened to is not the specific recording Tom recommends in 1,000 Recordings, although Sanford Sylvan sings Klinghoffer on both. Tom recommends the 2002 Channel 4 film adaptation, shot on a cruise ship. That version took the unusual and admirable approach of having the performers sing live on the boat, rather than lip sync to a recording. Having not seen the film, I can’t tell you whether that approach produces a more lyric-centric version of the opera.
Verdict
I’m going to seek out more works by Adams, starting with Tom’s recommendation of Harmonielehre. Dr. Atomic is next on my opera list.
Harmonium: 4 stars (out of 5). The Death of Klinghoffer: 3 stars (out of 5), with the right to revise upward when I see the film.
Genre: Rock
