WHAT IS A PHILIP GLASS OPERA?
An Interview with Music Director Alan Johnson by Diane Claussen, Court Theatre Executive Director

Talk to Philip Glass’s long-time associate—rehearsal pianist, vocal coach and music director, Alan Johnson, and one discovers Philip’s work is almost beyond definition or comparison. Influenced by a spectrum of theatre, music, classic tales and cultural traditions from around the world, Philip’s operas are as unclassifiable and original as the impressive list of directors, playwrights, theatres and opera houses that have commissioned, created and presented his operas for more than thirty years.

Philip’s operas originate out of his desire to create something in close collaboration with a director and/or writer—most often a visionary theatrical director such as JoAnne Akalaitis, Robert Wilson, Peter Sellars or Robert Woodruff, and/or a distinctive playwright like David Henry Hwang. For Philip, working in the theatre is like “coming home.” (And for this University of Chicago alum, working at Court Theatre, specifically, is always a special “homecoming”).

For two decades, Alan has been working and creating along side Philip in theatres and opera houses, first as a vocal coach and rehearsal pianist and, most recently and often, as his musical director of choice. Philip was writing music for the theatre long before he began writing operas, which is one of the reasons that his work is considered so unique and innovative, and so perfectly suited for theatres such as Harvard University’s American Repertory Theatre (ART), American Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in Seattle and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Court Theatre. Coined “opera for the theatre” or “theatre opera,” Philip’s work is grounded in both a theatrical approach to story-telling and complex human relations; and it is a performing art form meant to be experienced in intimate performance spaces like Court Theatre.

However, Philip is also interested in his music reaching as many people as possible, and thus his world premiere opera IN THE PENAL COLONY that appeared at Court Theatre in 2000, and subsequently at the Classic Stage Company in New York City, has enjoyed recent successes in much bigger opera houses throughout the world. In the same way that Philip is discovering and pushing the boundaries of what can happen between opera singers and audiences in small theatrical performance spaces such as Court, he is equally inspired by what happens to his theatre operas when they expand to fill larger stages and reach more people in traditional opera houses.

So what is it that defines or distinguishes a performance of IN THE PENAL COLONY or THE SOUND OF A VOICE from a traditional opera experience? The singing and acting challenges are especially unique for opera singers. Alan explains: “it’s a musical dialogue … the work is not so much about expressing the beauty of the voice, but rather what comes first is the thought and then the singer finds how to use his/her voice to color the word. In more traditional operas, the singers typically want the audience to first appreciate the beauty of their voices.” In both PENAL COLONY and SOUND the singers are encouraged to scale down their vocal work and focus more on the presentation of their characters’ ideas and thoughts, and to get to know their roles in a much deeper way.

In the theatre, the length of the rehearsal period and the number of daily hours in rehearsal are longer in duration and more integrated than in opera. At Court the four opera singers and four musicians will have more time together to explore and create the nuances of their own work as well as to find the connection between the other singers and instrumentalists. To aid in this process, a theatrical dramaturg worked closely with the singers and directors throughout the initial rehearsal period at ART, in the same way that a dramaturg is integrally involved in the creation of all non-musical work at ART and Court. The immersion of a dramaturg at this level of creativity is still a relatively unique occurrence in traditional opera settings.

While in a large house an opera may run 4-20 performances in rep over the course of a season, at Court operas run for more than 40 consecutive performances and, when coupled with the ART co-production, singers are given the opportunity to perform close to 70 performances in a six month period. In addition, as with PENAL COLONY, in SOUND the singers and musicians will occupy and share a single space and playing arena on the Court stage. In traditional opera, the musicians and conductor are separated from the singers and audience by the convention of a musicians’ pit.

Despite size and performance similarities, there are some key creative and structural differences between these two theatre operas. PENAL COLONY is a music adaptation of a Kafka short story, while THE SOUND OF A VOICE began its life as two one-act plays written by David Henry Hwang for Joe Papp at the Public Theatre in the 1980’s. In both operas, Philip had a desire to “musicalize” a writer’s narrative—Kafka’s short story and its aesthetic, and Hwang’s plays and cultural mores. But in PENAL COLONY the singers spend little time singing to each other and much of their performances are directed solely to the audience. In SOUND, the singers seldom, if ever, acknowledge the audience and rather the singers are engaged in an intricate musical dialogue with the one other singer sharing the stage with them.

While PENAL COLONY was written for a more familiar combination of instruments—a string quintet—that allows for a broad range of expression, SOUND gave Philip the new opportunity to write for an ancient instrument, the pipa, in combination with a cello, a flute and percussion. As far as the creators know, this is the first opera ever written for a pipa. It wasn’t until this point in his life that Philip felt he had the discipline and sophistication to write for this unique combination of instruments. The pipa, flute and cello are rather linear and follow single lines while the percussion provides the color and rhythm in THE SOUND OF A VOICE.

While the singers you will see are recreating their roles from the Boston premiere, the musicians are, for the most part, creating this work for the first time. Alan and Philip are particularly looking forward to hearing and experiencing SOUND with Min Xiao-Fen, a New York based pipa player who will bring to Chicago her unique training and fluid style to the pipa playing.

More than anything, Philip and Alan are excited to test and embrace the intimacy of the Court Theatre performance space on this leg of their creative journey. With half as many seats as ART’s theatre, no orchestra pit and a thrust rather than a proscenium stage, the singers and musicians are anticipating a new level of intimacy, character depth and musical nuances in their performances at Court. And for Philip and Alan, that’s the best reason for “coming home” to any theatre.