Philip Glass: In the Penal Colony (2012)

Among the dramatic works of Philip Glass, it is the experimental Einstein on the Beach and perhaps Satyagraha that continue to attract attention. In later works, Glass turned his attention to conventional storytelling and adapted his musical language to its exigencies. These works may be less sexy than those that satisfy high-culture-industry demands for novelty, but the continuing popularity of Glass' music with ordinary concert audiences is partly due to developments in his musical language that were worked out in pieces ... Read More

Among the dramatic works of Philip Glass, it is the experimental Einstein on the Beach and perhaps Satyagraha that continue to attract attention. In later works, Glass turned his attention to conventional storytelling and adapted his musical language to its exigencies. These works may be less sexy than those that satisfy high-culture-industry demands for novelty, but the continuing popularity of Glass' music with ordinary concert audiences is partly due to developments in his musical language that were worked out in pieces like the opera In the Penal Colony (2000). The two-vocal-role chamber opera is based on a story by Franz Kafka (perhaps the inspiration for the Harry Potter books' Blood Quill) about a torture device that kills condemned prisoners by writing words with a harrow into the skin of their backs. Glass' musical language here, rendered by a string quintet (first violin to double bass), is immediately identifiable and is unadorned by electronics. The arpeggios based on open chords, the slow... Read Less