The Juniper Tree (opera)

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Operas by Philip Glass

Einstein on the Beach (1976)
Satyagraha (1980)
The Photographer (1982)
Akhnaten (1983)
the CIVIL warS, (1984)
The Juniper Tree (1985) with Moran
1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988)
The Fall of the House of Usher(1988)
Hydrogen Jukebox (1990)
The Voyage (1992)
Monsters of Grace (1998)
Galileo Galilei (2002)
Waiting for the Barbarians (2005)
Appomattox (2007)
v • d • e

The Juniper Tree is an opera co-composed by Philip Glass and Robert Moran in 1985 to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The opera is in two acts and is scored for two baritones, bass, mezzo-soprano, four sopranos, tenor, mixed chorus, children's voices and chamber orchestra. Each composer wrote alternating scenes and utilized each others' themes to provide structural unity.

Contents

[edit] Performance history

It was premiered on December 11, 1985 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[edit] Roles

Role Type of singer
The Husband lyric baritone
His Wife lyric soprano
The Son/The Juniper Bird boy soprano
The Step-mother mezzo-soprano
Her Daughter soprano
The Goldsmith bass
The Cobbler baritone
The Miller tenor
Village Folk chorus
Mama Bird soprano
Baby Birds children's voices

[edit] Plot

The famous Grimm fairy tale tells of a wicked stepmother who murders her stepson, fearing that he reminds her husband of his late wife and serves him up in a stew to his hungry, unsuspecting father. The boy’s sister buries her brother’s bones under a juniper tree where their mother is buried, and the child’s spirit returns as a singing bird who wreaks vengeance on the evil stepmother (dropping a millstone on her) before being restored to life in the bosom of his family.

[edit] References


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