compositions
1000 Airplanes On The Roof
1988

Info

90′

Music/theater work in one act.
Music by Philip Glass.
Text by David Henry Hwang.
Published by Dunvagen Music Publishers.

Commission

Commissioned by the Donau Festival Niederoesterreich, the American Music Theather Festival, Philadelphia, PA and Berlin, Cultural City of Europe 1988.

Cast

Actor (speech only) S; fl (pic, bcl, wind syn). fl (ssx). ssx (asx, tsx)/ 2 syn

Premiere

July 15, 1988 at the Vienna International Airport, Hangar No. 3.

Synopsis

The character “M” recalls encounters with extra-terrestrial life forms, including their message, “It is better to forget, it is pointless to remember. No one will believe you.” Are the surrealistic details an accurate recollection of a voyage through space, part of a drug-induced nightmare, or the beginning of a mental breakdown?

Notes

1000 Airplanes on the Roof is a so called “science fiction music drama” with music by Philip Glass, story by David Henry Hwang and holographic set projections by Jerome Sirlin’s.

Scores

1000 Airplanes On the Roof at Wise Music Classical

Related

RECORDINGS:
1000 Airplanes on the Roof on Virgin
BOOKS:
1000 Airplanes on the Roof by Philip Glass, David Henry Hwang and Jerome Sirlin