compositions
the CIVIL warS (Rome)
A tree is best measured when it is down
1983

Info

120′

Music by Philip Glass.
Libretto by Maita di Nascemi and Robert Wilson. Text in Latin, Italian, and English.
Originally conceived as part of Robert Wilson’s multi-composer epic for the Olympic Games of 1984, the work can also be performed in a concert version.
Published by Dunvagen Music Publishers.

Cast

S, Mz, T, Bar, B; 2 speaking parts (M+F); SATB chorus; 2 (pic) .2.(bcl).2/4.3.2 btbn.1/hp/ timp. 3 perc (SD, BD, cym, wdbl)/ str, fl, cl, bn, 4hn, 2 vln, va, vc, bass

Commission

Commissioned by the Opera di Roma.

Premiere

Premiere: March 1984, Opera di Roma, conducted by Marcello Panni.

Notes

Part of Robert Wilson’s multi-composer epic for the Olympic Games of 1984, the Rome Section of “the CIVIL warS” is a unit all its own, non-narrative, and portrays the future, the present, the past (both near and distant), and the legendary – all existing simultaneously. The opera is symbolic, metephysical, realistic, metaphomical, and its stage ranges from ancient Athens to the spaceship-filled future of the human race.

Scores

Related

RECORDINGS:
Symphony No. 3 on Nonesuch
the CIVIL warS — The Rome Section on Nonesuch Records

COMPOSITIONS:
the CIVIL warS – Cologne