A Flowering Tree
Encyclopedia
A Flowering Tree is an opera
in two acts composed by John Adams with libretto
by Adams and Peter Sellars
, and commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, the San Francisco Symphony
, the Barbican Centre
in London, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
in New York City
, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
The story is based on an ancient India
n folk tale of the same title with translations by Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan. The opera resembles Mozart's The Magic Flute
in some ways; both operas adapt folk tales, in this case one from southern India, "describing a young couple undergoing rituals and trials to discover the transfiguring power of love." This parallel was intended by the composer as the opera was commissioned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. It is set for a small cast of three singers (baritone
for the narrator, tenor
for the prince, and lyric soprano
for Kamudha), a large chorus (SATB
), and three dancers.
It premiered on November 14, 2006 in the MuseumsQuartier Hall in Vienna
with Eric Owens
as the narrator, Russell Thomas as the prince, Jessica Rivera
as Kumudha, Orquesta Joven Camerata de Venezuela and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
all under the direction of John Adams in a production of Peter Sellars as part the New Crowned Hope Festival celebrating the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
.
, San Francisco and London
. A Flowering Tree was given at Chicago Opera Theater
during the Spring of 2008, and also at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, where the Japanese premiere was seen on 6 December 2008 with Naoto Otomo and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and with almost the same soloists at the premiere in Vienna, where Peter Sellars directed. It was performed once again in 2009 at Lincoln Center in New York, and in 2010, by the Gulbenkian Orchestra
, led by Joana Carneiro
and staged by Rui Horta.
In the summer of 2011 Joana Carniero conducted a new production of A Flowering Tree for the Cincinnati Opera
, with the trio of artists who originated these roles at the 2006 world premiere in Vienna. A staged concert production is currently planned for June 2012 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus, to be directed by James Alexander with soloist, Jessica Rivera, Russell Thomas, and Eric Owens
. Robert Spano
will conduct.
Kumudha and her sisters decide to once again sell flowers and she transforms into a tree yet again. The transformation is witnessed by a young Prince who is concealed in a nearby tree. He is at once infatuated and disturbed by Kumudha's magic and beauty. He resolves to marry Kumudha and upon returning to the palace convinces his father, the King, to order Kumudha to be brought to the palace so that he can marry her.
Following their wedding the Prince becomes silent and sullen and, to the distress of Kumudha, the couple spends several nights without speaking or touching each other. The silence is finally broken when the Prince reveals he knows about Kumudha's magic and demands that she transform for him. Ashamed, Kumudha resists but eventually gives in.
Meanwhile, out of jealousy the Prince’s sister has spied on Kumudha and the prince witnessing her transformation. When the Prince leaves the next day she taunts Kumudha and commands her to transform for her wealthy young friends. Reluctantly, Kumudha agrees. In the midst of the ritual however, the princess and her friends lose interest and leave. By breaking the magical ritual Kumudha is stuck in an in-between state where she is not entirely tree or entirely human.
Now a hideous creature, Kumudha crawls into a gutter, where she is found by a wandering band of minstrels.
Upon returning to the court, the Prince discovers his wife is missing. When he does not find her he assumes that his arrogance has driven her away. Feeling guilt and remorse, the prince decides to become a wandering beggar and mute in order to punish himself.
After several years pass, the prince stumbles into the palace courtyard of a distant city where his sister is now a Queen. He is haggard and almost unrecognizable, but the Queen recognizes her brother and brings him into the palace where she bathes and feeds him. The prince, however, will not speak to her and is despondent.
In the town marketplace, several of the queen’s maids see the minstrel troupe and hear the beautiful singing of a freakish thing with neither hands nor feet. They bring this strange and misshapen torso to the palace and suggest that its beautiful singing might revive the Prince. Not knowing that this is Kumudha, the Queen orders her to be bathed and covered with scented oils and brought to the Prince’s bed.
Alone, Kumudha and Prince recognize one another. They are both overcome with grief and then with joy. He takes two pitchers of water and performs the old ceremony. Kumudha returns to her human form.
, two flute
s, two oboe
s, two English horns, soprano recorder
, alto recorder, two clarinet
s, bass clarinet
, bassoon
, contrabassoon
, four horn
s, two trumpet
s, timpani
, two percussion, harp
, celesta
and strings
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in two acts composed by John Adams with libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Adams and Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
, and commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, the San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
, the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in London, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
The story is based on an ancient India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n folk tale of the same title with translations by Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan. The opera resembles Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
in some ways; both operas adapt folk tales, in this case one from southern India, "describing a young couple undergoing rituals and trials to discover the transfiguring power of love." This parallel was intended by the composer as the opera was commissioned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. It is set for a small cast of three singers (baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
for the narrator, tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
for the prince, and lyric soprano
Lyric soprano
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have...
for Kamudha), a large chorus (SATB
SATB
In music, SATB is an initialism for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, defining the voices required by a chorus or choir to perform a particular musical work...
), and three dancers.
It premiered on November 14, 2006 in the MuseumsQuartier Hall in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
with Eric Owens
Eric Owens (bass-baritone)
Eric Owens is an American operatic bass-baritone born July 11, 1970 in Philadelphia. He attended Central High School "247", Temple University's Boyer College of Music, and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia...
as the narrator, Russell Thomas as the prince, Jessica Rivera
Jessica Rivera
Jessica Rivera is an American soprano of Peruvian ancestry. She is a 1996 graduate of Pepperdine University, and earned her Master of Music degree in 1998 from the University of Southern California's Flora L. Thornton School of Music...
as Kumudha, Orquesta Joven Camerata de Venezuela and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela is one of the most important choral societies belonging to the growing choral movement in Venezuela. SCV was founded in 1967 by Alberto Grau, a Venezuelan composer and conductor born in 1937 in Barcelona, Spain...
all under the direction of John Adams in a production of Peter Sellars as part the New Crowned Hope Festival celebrating the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
.
Performance history
Since its premiere, the opera has been performed in concert in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, San Francisco and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. A Flowering Tree was given at Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago Opera Theater
The Chicago Opera Theater is an opera company that was founded as the Chicago Opera Studio in 1974 by Alan Stone to give vocal students performance experience, although it has grown into a professional opera company...
during the Spring of 2008, and also at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, where the Japanese premiere was seen on 6 December 2008 with Naoto Otomo and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and with almost the same soloists at the premiere in Vienna, where Peter Sellars directed. It was performed once again in 2009 at Lincoln Center in New York, and in 2010, by the Gulbenkian Orchestra
Gulbenkian Orchestra
The Gulbenkian Orchestra is a Portuguese symphony orchestra based in Lisbon. The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Grande Auditório of the Gulbenkian Foundation....
, led by Joana Carneiro
Joana Carneiro
Joana Carneiro , is a Portuguese conductor. She is the third of nine children of the former Portuguese minister of education Roberto Carneiro, and she is the niece of the Portuguese politician Adelino Amaro da Costa.As a youth, Carneiro played the viola...
and staged by Rui Horta.
In the summer of 2011 Joana Carniero conducted a new production of A Flowering Tree for the Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States .-History:...
, with the trio of artists who originated these roles at the 2006 world premiere in Vienna. A staged concert production is currently planned for June 2012 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Robert Spano has been its music director since 2001...
and Chorus, to be directed by James Alexander with soloist, Jessica Rivera, Russell Thomas, and Eric Owens
Eric Owens (bass-baritone)
Eric Owens is an American operatic bass-baritone born July 11, 1970 in Philadelphia. He attended Central High School "247", Temple University's Boyer College of Music, and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia...
. Robert Spano
Robert Spano
Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra , and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004...
will conduct.
Synopsis
Kumudha, a beautiful young woman who comes from an impoverished family, is worried about her old and suffering mother. Kumudha discovers that she has the magical ability to transform herself into a flowering tree. With the help of her sisters, Kumudha turns herself into a tree with the intent that her sisters gather and sell the flowers from her branches. Her sisters gather the flowers off the tree and Kumudha returns to her human form. They sell the flowers in the local marketplace and return to their mother who receives the money with no explanation from her daughters.Kumudha and her sisters decide to once again sell flowers and she transforms into a tree yet again. The transformation is witnessed by a young Prince who is concealed in a nearby tree. He is at once infatuated and disturbed by Kumudha's magic and beauty. He resolves to marry Kumudha and upon returning to the palace convinces his father, the King, to order Kumudha to be brought to the palace so that he can marry her.
Following their wedding the Prince becomes silent and sullen and, to the distress of Kumudha, the couple spends several nights without speaking or touching each other. The silence is finally broken when the Prince reveals he knows about Kumudha's magic and demands that she transform for him. Ashamed, Kumudha resists but eventually gives in.
Meanwhile, out of jealousy the Prince’s sister has spied on Kumudha and the prince witnessing her transformation. When the Prince leaves the next day she taunts Kumudha and commands her to transform for her wealthy young friends. Reluctantly, Kumudha agrees. In the midst of the ritual however, the princess and her friends lose interest and leave. By breaking the magical ritual Kumudha is stuck in an in-between state where she is not entirely tree or entirely human.
Now a hideous creature, Kumudha crawls into a gutter, where she is found by a wandering band of minstrels.
Upon returning to the court, the Prince discovers his wife is missing. When he does not find her he assumes that his arrogance has driven her away. Feeling guilt and remorse, the prince decides to become a wandering beggar and mute in order to punish himself.
After several years pass, the prince stumbles into the palace courtyard of a distant city where his sister is now a Queen. He is haggard and almost unrecognizable, but the Queen recognizes her brother and brings him into the palace where she bathes and feeds him. The prince, however, will not speak to her and is despondent.
In the town marketplace, several of the queen’s maids see the minstrel troupe and hear the beautiful singing of a freakish thing with neither hands nor feet. They bring this strange and misshapen torso to the palace and suggest that its beautiful singing might revive the Prince. Not knowing that this is Kumudha, the Queen orders her to be bathed and covered with scented oils and brought to the Prince’s bed.
Alone, Kumudha and Prince recognize one another. They are both overcome with grief and then with joy. He takes two pitchers of water and performs the old ceremony. Kumudha returns to her human form.
Orchestration
The score calls for piccoloPiccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, two flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, two oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, two English horns, soprano recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
, alto recorder, two clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s, bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...
, four horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s, two trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, two percussion, harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, celesta
Celesta
The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
.
Recordings
- A Flowering Tree with the London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, the Schola Cantorum de VenezuelaSchola Cantorum de VenezuelaSchola Cantorum de Venezuela is one of the most important choral societies belonging to the growing choral movement in Venezuela. SCV was founded in 1967 by Alberto Grau, a Venezuelan composer and conductor born in 1937 in Barcelona, Spain...
and conducted by the composer John Adams. Also with Eric OwensEric Owens (bass-baritone)Eric Owens is an American operatic bass-baritone born July 11, 1970 in Philadelphia. He attended Central High School "247", Temple University's Boyer College of Music, and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia...
as the narrator, Russell Thomas as the prince, and Jessica RiveraJessica RiveraJessica Rivera is an American soprano of Peruvian ancestry. She is a 1996 graduate of Pepperdine University, and earned her Master of Music degree in 1998 from the University of Southern California's Flora L. Thornton School of Music...
as Kumudha. Recorded in 2007 and released in 2008 on the Nonesuch label.
External links
- John Adams' official website for a detailed synopsis, audio sample, and other information