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1000 Airplanes on the Roof

1988 melodrama by Philip Glass

Field	Value
name	1000 Airplanes on the Roof
composer	Philip Glass
image	Philip Glass in Florence, Italy - 1993.jpg
caption	Glass in Florence, 1993
type	melodrama
premiere_date
premiere_location	Vienna International Airport

1000 Airplanes on the Roof is a melodrama in one act with music by Philip Glass, text by David Henry Hwang, and projections by Jerome Sirlin. Glass described it as "a science fiction music drama".

The work was commissioned by the Donau Festival, Krems an der Donau, the American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia, and West Berlin City Council in 1988. It premiered on July 15 of that year at the Vienna Airport in Hangar #3. The performance featured vocals by Linda Ronstadt and was conducted by Michael Riesman. The US premiere took place in September 1988 at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and went on to play in 40 North American cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago and Toronto, as well as Glasgow during that city's celebration as European City of Culture.

Synopsis

The drama is set in New York City with a sole character, "M", who recalls encounters with extraterrestrial life forms, including their message:

It is better to forget, it is pointless to remember. No one will believe you. You will have spoken a heresy. You will be outcast.

In the staged production, "M" performs in the midst of a three-dimensional, holographic set. In the classic sense of the word melodrama, the role is performed by an actor in a spoken monologue over music. In the world premiere, "M" was played by a male actor; in many of the US performances, the character was played alternately by female actor Jodi Long and male actor Patrick O'Connell.

Discography

Philip Glass: 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (The Philip Glass Ensemble and Linda Ronstadt; Martin Goldray, Music Direction), 1989. Virgin 86106-2

Book

The libretto and images of the original set are published in:

Philip Glass, David Henry Hwang and Jerome Sirlin (Introduction by John Howell), 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Book, 1989

References

(1989-01-01). "Jodi Long by Michael McClard". Bomb.
''FOB and Other Plays'', Plume, 1990

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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