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It’s simple
to annoint a new work of art, whether musical,
visual, or theatrical, as “groundbreaking,” but if that firmament
then rushes back in to cover up what has just been uncovered,
has the landscape really changed? When it comes to the
work of composer John Adams and director/producer Peter
Sellars, the answer is a resounding yes. The duo have made a
lasting contribution to American opera with
Nixon in China
,
and for better or worse their next collaboration,
The Death of
Klinghoffer
, is one of the most hotly discussed works today,
even a quarter century after its premiere.
Already at work on a “Nativity oratorio” some years later,
retelling the familiar story from a female perspective, Adams
arrived at key elements of what became
El Niño
thanks to
the suggestion by Sellars of a number of poems by Latin-
American women. As they continued to work together,
El Niño
accumulated further theatrical elements, with Adams coming
to call it an “opera-oratorio.” It opened as a fully staged work in
2000, but within a couple years a semi-staged production took
shape under the guidance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,
which performed the Chicago premiere of
El Niño
at Ravinia
in 2003.
A full Sellars staging will finally arrive at Ravinia in September
when the Los Angeles Master Chorale brings its
a cappella
theatrical interpretation of the Renaissance masterwork
Lagrime di San Pietro
(
The Tears of Saint Peter
) to the Pavilion.
But a thread of what made
El Niño
so engaging—as well as
the can’t-miss Ravinia event 15 years ago—also runs through
the central piece of the present season, Leonard Bernstein’s
Mass
. Where
El Niño
focuses on the miracle of motherhood
simultaneous with the religious experience of the Nativity
through the eyes of Mary,
Mass
delivers a sort of antithesis,
as the Street Chorus (congregation) openly wonders whether
God and religion have any place in their lives during a mass,
causing the Celebrant to have his own crisis of faith, playing off
the tradition in Bernstein’s Judaism of “arguing with God.”
June 6, 2003
15 YEARS AGO
ON THIS DATE
JUNE 1 – JUNE 17, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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