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The lobby of the Met, NYC

Last week I saw John Adams' new opera, A Flowering Tree. The performance was at the Rose Theater in Columbus Circle, not the Met pictured above, but benefited from the more intimate space. The orchestra was placed on-stage, beside a muti-level stage built for the action that resembed large slices of tree trunks, with the rings colored in. A tree rose from the center-left of the set. A chorus dressed in saris sat on stage left, surrounding the set. The three singers performed on the platforms; Javanese dancers acted like avatars for the main characters, shadowing the singers and performing their emotions.

The performance was enchanting. The dancers were amazing, and it was an interesting mix of the east and west. The source material for the opera is a southern Indian folktale, that has been refashioned and retold. The libretto is in English and Spanish; the chorus (as villagers and townsfolk) often sing their lines in the latter. The chorus at times reminded me of the music of Bjork.

The above was taken at the Metropolitan Opera House during this spring's final performance of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle. It was a glorious farewell.