Glass: Kepler

Opera plus astronomy - a stellar combination.
This opera is about the life of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who spent some time as a teacher in Linz. It was commissioned by the Landestheater Linz, where it was performed for this DVD. I think they got their money's worth.

Kepler was a deeply religious man, and spent his life attempting to discover the laws governing the order behind the movements of the planets. He ventured down some blind alleys along the way, and this opera explores them all.

In the very first scene, we see the body of Johannes Kepler, surrounded by the six planets known at his time, orbiting in perfect circles, bathed in that reddish light used by astronomers to avoid upsetting night vision. (For the non-astronomers amongst you, that would be the five visible planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - plus Earth). The planets are portrayed by six singers, wearing white clothing. The rest of the action is, presumably, a flashback.

As the action progresses, we see...

Philip Glass opera: Kepler
I have seen and enjoyed several Glass operas. This one is well done: good acting, excellent music (admittedly Glass isn't to every one's taste: when I play a CD of Glass's Einstein on the Beach my wife's son says "it sounds like a squirrel being tortured"), imaginative staging.
My only (non relevant) regret is that I can't get Glass's Akhnaten on DVD; I tremendously enjoyed seeing it at Chicago Opera Theater 10 years ago.

THE MASTER AT WORK
WHAT CAN I SAY? GLASS DOES IT AGAIN. IS THERE ANYONE IN THE OPERATIC WORLD WHO HAS EVER WRITTEN ABOUT THE ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE OF SCIENCE? WELL, THIS IS IT. IT REMINDS ME OF BERLIOZ (BENVENUTO CELLINI) OR HINDEMITH (MATHIS DER MAHLER), BOTH OF WHICH ARE ABOUT THE EXTATIC DIMENSION OF ART. AND YET, NONE OF HIS WORKS HAS EVER GRACED THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, AND THIS IS THE ONE EXTANT VIDEO OF A PRODUCTION OF HIS OPERAS. WITHOUT HIM, MAYBE THERE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A GOLIJOV AND CERTAINLY NO ADAMS (HIS CLOSEST PEER IN MUSICAL AND THEMATIC TERMS). AS USUAL, EXPECT NOTHING BEYOND BARE BONES FROM A KULTUR DVD. BUT WHAT MUSIC, WHAT SINGING, WHAT PRODUCTION, WHAT CONDUCTOR! I AM ASHAMED THIS PREMIERE HAD TO OCCUR IN GERMANY. IF YOU ARE A LONG-TERM GLASS FAN, LIKE I AM, YOU SIMPLY MUST ADD THIS DVD TO YOUR COLLECTION. WILL WE EVER SEE AN AKHNATON ON DVD?

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