compositions
Making Rep For Planet 8
An opera in three acts for orchestra, small chorus and soloists
1986

Info

180′
Music by Philip Glass.
Libretto by Doris Lessing based on her novel.
Published by Dunvagen Music Publishers.

Commission

Commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, the English National Opera and the Landestheater Kiel, Germany.

Instrumentation

2S, Mz, A, 2Bas, 2B, SATB Chorus; 2(pic).2.2.bcl.2/ 4.3.2.btrb.1/ 3 perc (timp, SD, BD, cym, tamb, tgl, glsp)/ hp/ str

Notes

Doris Lessing’s philosophical/mystical novel tells of an Eden-like planet plunged into an ice age that is extinguishing all life. Guided by the overlords from Canopus, an extra-terrestrial civilization, the people of Planet 8 learn to accept their individual deaths and evolve into a collective universal soul (the ‘Representative’ of the title), that survives physical destruction.

Scores