First performance 11 December 1985 Language English | Librettist Arthur Yorinks Adapted from The Juniper Tree | |
 | ||
Based on Brothers Grimm fairy tale Premiere December 11, 1985 (1985-12-11)
American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Massachusetts Composers Philip Glass, Robert Moran Similar The Voyage, Monsters of Grace, The Civil Wars: A Tree Is B, White Raven, Galileo Galilei | ||
The juniper tree
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.
Contents
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 other's themes to provide structural unity. Glass retained ownership of the opera, and did not allow for the "live" recording of the premiere (with Jayne West and Sanford Sylvan) to be released until 2009. Until then, Moran encouraged his fans to distribute bootleg copies so that people could hear it.
The juniper tree by philip glass robert moran
Performance history
It was premiered on December 11, 1985, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
For its 25th anniversary of creation, the Théâtre des Petites Garnottes presented the Canadian premiere of the opera in September, 2010 at the Salle Jean-Paul Tardif in Quebec, Canada.
Synopsis
The 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.