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Review
Commissioned to mark the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth and first heard in Vienna in late 2006, A Flowering Tree has already been seen and heard in Berlin, San Francisco and, last August, in London's Barbican Hall, from where this live recording hails.
Based on a southern Indian folk tale, it tells the story of Kumudha, a young girl who can magically transform herself at will into a tree so that she can sell its blossoms to support her old and infirm mother. But when she falls in love with a handsome prince and marries him, his jealous sister attacks and mutilates her while she is transformed, rendering her part human, part tree until her husband's love heals and restores her. Taking its thematic inspiration from The Magic Flute, A Flowering Tree reunites Adams with his longtime collaborator, Peter Sellars, both of whom contributed to the libretto.
Arriving so soon after the composer's searing portrait of Robert Oppenheimer, Doctor Atomic, A Flowering Tree feels like a calculated and canny response to its predecessor's Faustian incandescence. There's transformation here, certainly, but it has none of the apocalyptic fury and un-regarding vehemence threatened by nuclear fission.
Whether A Flowering Tree qualifies as an opera is moot. In performance it is operatic in scale, but in the dark-hued edges of Adams's otherwise characteristically high-edged tessitura it communicates with a forceful, chamber-like intensity that compels the attention.
Orchestral textures are light, sun-dappled and diaphanous and shot through with graceful and telling detail: broad-beamed brass that exotically glints and sparkles like stars in the night sky, percussion that ambles with elephantine deliberateness, woodwinds that dance and dart on warm thermals, tremulous strings that shimmer and slice in luxuriant abundance, and, most affecting of all, the simple sincerity of recorders, fragile and vulnerable but resolute and enduing. And in all of which, Adams finds moments of sublimely beautiful repose when his trademark rhythmic restlessness is not otherwise motoring the narrative along.
As the arboreally-challenged Kumudha, soprano Jessica Rivera offers a solid and ravishingly sung foundation, never more human and compelling than when she is transformed, and she clearly relishes the gorgeous sonorities Adams provides her with. Tenor Russell Thomas is a sensitive, supple and three-dimensional Prince, with bass-baritone Eric Owens carefully picking his way through the role of Storyteller to provide a reassuring conduit into this magical and mysterious moral fable.
Solid contributions, too, from the young Venezuelan choir of the Schola Cantorum Caracas, whose delivery of the Spanish-sung choruses carries the same impressively articulate impact one now associates with their orchestral peers. Adams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra with lightly-worn authority, making much of the moments of high drama and of individual intimacy. --Michael Quinn
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
John Adams continues to explore innovative musical ideas, tying them to political and philosophical themes, and has become America's favorite contemporary composer. His ability to communicate tremendously powerful responses from his audience with his 'enhanced minimalism' of style ('Nixon in China', 'The Death of Klinghoffer', 'Doctor Atomic' and 'El Nino' operas to works such as 'On the Transmigration of Souls, 'El Dorado', and 'Harmonium') makes him in integral part of our cultural fabric. FLOWERING TREE, beautifully recorded here in its entirety, adds another dimension to Adams' gifts - the translation of an Eastern Indian tale into an 'opera' that successfully recreates a myth while capturing the deep philosophical messages the myth holds as metaphor.
The story is at once simple and complex: suffice it to say that it relates the tale of a young woman reaching puberty who is able to be transformed into a flowering tree, an act that fascinates a Prince who marries the low caste girl for her magic rather than for her person. Giving in to the desire of the Prince the girl advises the people of the court how to recreate the transformation and the Prince and the girl consummate their marriage and discover a profound mutual love. Jealousy within the court leads to the disruption of one of the transformation sequences and the girl is broken while a tree and becomes an armless, legless outcast begging in the streets with her lovely songs. The distraught Prince fades to near nothingness at the loss of his bride, wandering the world for his love until an act brings the two together and the metamorphosis is complete.
The story is told by a narrator (Eric Owen) and the two other singing roles are sung by Jessica Rivera (the tree/girl Kumuhda) and Russell Thomas (the Prince). Each of these gifted singer actors is splendid: the opera is currently being presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with John Adams conducting, assisted by the same three singers on this recording and by the Los Angeles Master Chorale all with the original staging by Peter Sellars and the shadow dancing by three brilliant Indonesian dancers. This work contains some of Adams' most richly colorful orchestration (the music from the large orchestra that paints the transformation of the girl into a tree and that portion that reunites the lovers glows with an erotic and sensuous radiance like no other of Adams' works). The singing is in English but the important choral contributions are sung in Spanish - Adams' confessed second language as a Californian but also a language that for him is more sensual and evocative than English. The combination of these forces is as magic as the tale they describe. John Adams has once again created a vital contemporary work, as rich in beauty of sound as it is in poignantly profound message. It is a little miracle of an opera. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, May 09
The story is at once simple and complex: suffice it to say that it relates the tale of a young woman reaching puberty who is able to be transformed into a flowering tree, an act that fascinates a Prince who marries the low caste girl for her magic rather than for her person. Giving in to the desire of the Prince the girl advises the people of the court how to recreate the transformation and the Prince and the girl consummate their marriage and discover a profound mutual love. Jealousy within the court leads to the disruption of one of the transformation sequences and the girl is broken while a tree and becomes an armless, legless outcast begging in the streets with her lovely songs. The distraught Prince fades to near nothingness at the loss of his bride, wandering the world for his love until an act brings the two together and the metamorphosis is complete.
The story is told by a narrator (Eric Owen) and the two other singing roles are sung by Jessica Rivera (the tree/girl Kumuhda) and Russell Thomas (the Prince). Each of these gifted singer actors is splendid: the opera is currently being presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with John Adams conducting, assisted by the same three singers on this recording and by the Los Angeles Master Chorale all with the original staging by Peter Sellars and the shadow dancing by three brilliant Indonesian dancers. This work contains some of Adams' most richly colorful orchestration (the music from the large orchestra that paints the transformation of the girl into a tree and that portion that reunites the lovers glows with an erotic and sensuous radiance like no other of Adams' works). The singing is in English but the important choral contributions are sung in Spanish - Adams' confessed second language as a Californian but also a language that for him is more sensual and evocative than English. The combination of these forces is as magic as the tale they describe. John Adams has once again created a vital contemporary work, as rich in beauty of sound as it is in poignantly profound message. It is a little miracle of an opera. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, May 09
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I don't wish to add much to Grady Harp's excellent review. The performances are all as he says and he has provided an excellent synopsis of the work.
After the increasingly overt musical complexity and intensity of his works of recent years like "Naive and Sentimental Music", "El Nino" and "Doctor Atomic" this new opera might come as a shock. John Adams saw Mozart's Magic Flute as a model for "A Flowering Tree" and used a tale with similarities to other tales dotted around the globe. He makes no attempt to make his music sound the slightest bit Indian - Spanish being his only concession beyond English, largely in the more meaty choruses: The moral of the tale is meant to be universal and the music reflects that.
If it were for the performances alone this would be an unequivocal 5 stars but I do have reservations about the opera itself. The music is indeed among the most orchestrally luminous that John Adams has ever written, though you'll find nothing new technically: the same luminosity can be found in bucket loads as early as his "Common Tones In Simple Time". There is no problem in revealing this simplicity in a large scale, especially after "Doctor Atomic", but with the narrator being the lead voice and thread for most of the piece it feels more like a gentle oratorio: there is little real drama and there is an inevitability about the conflict resolution in Act 2.
The conclusion brings forth the most glittering music of all but, to emphasise the lack of drama, the orchestra is playing long after the last words are sung. This is very beautiful music but as an opera it is inevitably quite light weight. Doubtless Peter Seller's production of the work would add plenty extra with dancers etc to provide more "layers of meaning" but the point of the work seems to me to be more a case of providing depth through simplicity: I'm sure that a DVD wouldn't add what we have here on disc.
Maybe knocking off a full star is being a little mean but I do have reservations. Even so, this is very beautiful and I would still recommend it. I wonder where John Adams will go next.
After the increasingly overt musical complexity and intensity of his works of recent years like "Naive and Sentimental Music", "El Nino" and "Doctor Atomic" this new opera might come as a shock. John Adams saw Mozart's Magic Flute as a model for "A Flowering Tree" and used a tale with similarities to other tales dotted around the globe. He makes no attempt to make his music sound the slightest bit Indian - Spanish being his only concession beyond English, largely in the more meaty choruses: The moral of the tale is meant to be universal and the music reflects that.
If it were for the performances alone this would be an unequivocal 5 stars but I do have reservations about the opera itself. The music is indeed among the most orchestrally luminous that John Adams has ever written, though you'll find nothing new technically: the same luminosity can be found in bucket loads as early as his "Common Tones In Simple Time". There is no problem in revealing this simplicity in a large scale, especially after "Doctor Atomic", but with the narrator being the lead voice and thread for most of the piece it feels more like a gentle oratorio: there is little real drama and there is an inevitability about the conflict resolution in Act 2.
The conclusion brings forth the most glittering music of all but, to emphasise the lack of drama, the orchestra is playing long after the last words are sung. This is very beautiful music but as an opera it is inevitably quite light weight. Doubtless Peter Seller's production of the work would add plenty extra with dancers etc to provide more "layers of meaning" but the point of the work seems to me to be more a case of providing depth through simplicity: I'm sure that a DVD wouldn't add what we have here on disc.
Maybe knocking off a full star is being a little mean but I do have reservations. Even so, this is very beautiful and I would still recommend it. I wonder where John Adams will go next.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
John Adams in fine form
3 Oct 2008
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was very excited to see this CD was finally available, and I jumped on it. I'm happy to say that I'm not disappointed. Adam's writing is both energetic and gorgeous, as ever. An equal to "El Nino", easily. Superior to "Klinghoffer" and (if it even needs to be said) the stumble that "I Was Looking At The Ceiling..." turned out to be. Nothing tops "Nixon", of course, but that opera is stylistically somewhat different from Adam's current style. I have yet to hear "Doctor Atomic" so I can't compare it.
The performance is excellent as well. The singers are well matched to the material and the playing is phenomenal, as is the mix and master of the CD itself.
I have to confirm the booklet issue, but I have to say it doesn't really bother me. I'm not really a follow-the-libretto kind of opera listener. It's in English, anyhow. From a consumer perspective I would hope they would have some sort of mail-in exchange option, though, once they get it sorted out.
If you're a John Adams fan, this is a must-have, in my opinion.
The performance is excellent as well. The singers are well matched to the material and the playing is phenomenal, as is the mix and master of the CD itself.
I have to confirm the booklet issue, but I have to say it doesn't really bother me. I'm not really a follow-the-libretto kind of opera listener. It's in English, anyhow. From a consumer perspective I would hope they would have some sort of mail-in exchange option, though, once they get it sorted out.
If you're a John Adams fan, this is a must-have, in my opinion.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Nonesuch WILL send you a corrected booklet, without charge.
29 Nov 2008
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I went to the Nonesuch website, contacted them as indicated on the site, explained the problem, and within a few days received a courteous e-mail apologizing for the misprinted booklet and explaining that they were reprinting the booklet correctly. A few weeks later I reveived the reprinted booklet, free of errors and free of charge. I hope that those who downgraded this release will go to the [...] website and write a courteous request for the reprinted booklet. As for why others got no reply to their complaints, all I can assume is that they did not go directly to the source on the Nonesuch site.
By the way, I think this opera is yet another masterpiece from one of American's finest living composers. Adams is perhaps our finest composer overall, given the variety and depth (both intellectual and emotional) of his works as well as their appeal to the human ears. Certainly the many performances of his works all over the world suggest that he is. Only in the USA are his compositions relatively rarely performed. Now that the MET has finally, after all these years, recognized him with "Dr. Atomic" and plans a production of "Nixon in China", perhaps we will get to hear and see more of his works in concert halls and opera houses.
I highly recommend his recent autobiography,Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life and the informative The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer. Also well done and greatly to be ejoyed are the DVD studies of his life and music, Hail Bop! A Portrait of John Adams and John Adams - A Portrait and a Concert of American Music. Also available and highly recommended are the DVDs of his earlier operas: The Death of Klinghoffer, in a British film version Adams - Death of Klinghoffer / Randle, Sylvan, Howard, Maltman, Boutros, Melrose, Bickley, LSO and El Nino, which is rather a staged oratorio than an opera as such. We are still waiting for a DVD of "Nixon in China" , his first and most performed opera. It is still available on CD: Nixon in China. When we finally get in on DVD, I bet it will come from the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Great Britain.
John Adams and Steve Reich, along with Christopher Rouse and others, have finally overcome the decades long tyranny of the notion that classical music is to be written by academic composers for a coterie of other academic composers rather than for greater audiences, music determined by chance or mathematics, often elegant on the page, even more often ugly to the ear and anxiety producing to the psyche.
For the record, lest I be mistaken for a musical Philistine into classical music "lite" with easy tunes to hum, I think that the 20th Century's great operas include Berg's "Wozzeck" and "Lulu" and Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron." - along with the operas of Janacek, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Britten. And, yes, let's do some humming: "Porgy and Bess" and "Trouble in Tahiti" and "Candide."
In any case, Nonesuch will gladly send you a new booklet with the complete libretto of "A Flowering Tree." Just go to the label's website and request it.
By the way, I think this opera is yet another masterpiece from one of American's finest living composers. Adams is perhaps our finest composer overall, given the variety and depth (both intellectual and emotional) of his works as well as their appeal to the human ears. Certainly the many performances of his works all over the world suggest that he is. Only in the USA are his compositions relatively rarely performed. Now that the MET has finally, after all these years, recognized him with "Dr. Atomic" and plans a production of "Nixon in China", perhaps we will get to hear and see more of his works in concert halls and opera houses.
I highly recommend his recent autobiography,Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life and the informative The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer. Also well done and greatly to be ejoyed are the DVD studies of his life and music, Hail Bop! A Portrait of John Adams and John Adams - A Portrait and a Concert of American Music. Also available and highly recommended are the DVDs of his earlier operas: The Death of Klinghoffer, in a British film version Adams - Death of Klinghoffer / Randle, Sylvan, Howard, Maltman, Boutros, Melrose, Bickley, LSO and El Nino, which is rather a staged oratorio than an opera as such. We are still waiting for a DVD of "Nixon in China" , his first and most performed opera. It is still available on CD: Nixon in China. When we finally get in on DVD, I bet it will come from the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Great Britain.
John Adams and Steve Reich, along with Christopher Rouse and others, have finally overcome the decades long tyranny of the notion that classical music is to be written by academic composers for a coterie of other academic composers rather than for greater audiences, music determined by chance or mathematics, often elegant on the page, even more often ugly to the ear and anxiety producing to the psyche.
For the record, lest I be mistaken for a musical Philistine into classical music "lite" with easy tunes to hum, I think that the 20th Century's great operas include Berg's "Wozzeck" and "Lulu" and Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron." - along with the operas of Janacek, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Britten. And, yes, let's do some humming: "Porgy and Bess" and "Trouble in Tahiti" and "Candide."
In any case, Nonesuch will gladly send you a new booklet with the complete libretto of "A Flowering Tree." Just go to the label's website and request it.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Most Romantic Adams yet
7 Oct 2008
Format:Audio CD
The shimmering beauty of the music, the magical Tamil tale of transformative love vs. adversity, and the exceptional performances all make John Adams' opera/oratorio "A Flowering Tree" one of his best releases yet.
A flood of antipodal cultural references washes through the music. Adams' minimalist upbringing barely shows. To create some tonal exoticism, most of Act I seems to be in a medieval mixolydian mode (a scale sounding like G to G on the piano's white keys). The melodic lines are more emotive, the orchestration more transparent, the style positivistic in evoking the sound of previous composers.
The opening notes are transporting. Taking Wagner's woodbird music accompaniment from Siegfried and pasting on it a low melody in a peculiar doubling, Adams conjures up the Sibelius of the Sixth Symphony. Later, in highly accented, simply phrased, fortissimo choral passages, the shade of Carl Orff Carmina-izes. During the wedding music, slashing strings typical of the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara are heard. At the beginning of Act II, blatantly Wagnerian horn phrases burst out. Yet all these Western and Nordic references are carefully immersed in genetic Adams: No harm, no postmodern foul.
At times in other works, Adams emotive self is so standoffish you want to shake him. Not so here. Along with "My Father Knew Charles Ives," "Nixon in China," and, yes, "Ceiling ... Sky," this is my favorite Adams so far.
A flood of antipodal cultural references washes through the music. Adams' minimalist upbringing barely shows. To create some tonal exoticism, most of Act I seems to be in a medieval mixolydian mode (a scale sounding like G to G on the piano's white keys). The melodic lines are more emotive, the orchestration more transparent, the style positivistic in evoking the sound of previous composers.
The opening notes are transporting. Taking Wagner's woodbird music accompaniment from Siegfried and pasting on it a low melody in a peculiar doubling, Adams conjures up the Sibelius of the Sixth Symphony. Later, in highly accented, simply phrased, fortissimo choral passages, the shade of Carl Orff Carmina-izes. During the wedding music, slashing strings typical of the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara are heard. At the beginning of Act II, blatantly Wagnerian horn phrases burst out. Yet all these Western and Nordic references are carefully immersed in genetic Adams: No harm, no postmodern foul.
At times in other works, Adams emotive self is so standoffish you want to shake him. Not so here. Along with "My Father Knew Charles Ives," "Nixon in China," and, yes, "Ceiling ... Sky," this is my favorite Adams so far.
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