John Adams: A Flowering Tree auf 2 CDs

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“The score is opulent, dreamlike, fiercely lyrical, at times shadowy and strange—unlike anything that the composer has written …” —The New Yorker

Nonesuch released A Flowering Tree, the latest opera by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer John Adams, in September 2008. The opera was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and was premiered at the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna in November 2006. The composer leads the London Symphony Orchestra and Venezuela’s Schola Cantorum Caracas, directed by Maria Guinand, on this recording—which features tenor Russell Thomas, soprano Jessica Rivera, and bass-baritone Eric Owens.

Adams and his longtime collaborator, co-librettist / director Peter Sellars, adapted an Indian folktale to create A Flowering Tree. The opera shares with Mozart’s The Magic Flute the themes of youth, magic, transformation, and the dawning of moral awareness. The work was commissioned by New Crowned Hope, San Francisco Symphony, Barbican Centre, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

A Flowering Tree tells the story of an impoverished young Indian girl, Kumudha, who has the magical ability to transform herself into a tree and sells her blossoms at the palace to help her ailing mother. The Prince falls in love with her, and they marry but are torn apart by his jealous sister. After Kumudha is cast out into a netherworld as half woman, half tree, and the Prince becomes a wandering beggar, they meet again years later at the prince’s sister’s palace. No longer physically recognizable, Kumudha reunites with her prince through her beautiful singing voice.

Critics have praised A Flowering Tree since its debut. The New York Times said, “Mr. Adams really goes for it. His score is alive with innocence and magic, which buzz in the violins, chime softly from the bells and blow in little windy phrases on recorders at the moment of enchantment.” The Chicago Tribune said, “The score is alive with pulsing strings, glinting metallic percussion and his trademark jumpy rhythmic patter … a compelling achievement.” And the Los Angeles Times called this "a terrific recording."

The fall of 2008 was busy for John Adams. His memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life—which details his youth, education, and emergence as one of the leading artists of our time—was released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October. That same month, his acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic made its New York premiere in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera—marking the first time the composer’s work will be presented at the esteemed opera house.