Phillip Glass Opera

This low-budget Philip Glass opera, Les enfants Terribles, is based on a novel and play by Jean Cocteau, forming the third ring in Glass' trilogy of works devoted to the elaborate personal mythology of the great French visionary. Foregoing the controversial and dualistic 1949 film of Les enfants Terribles made by Jean-Pierre Melville, Glass decided to realize the visual element through a collaboration with choreographer Susan Marshall, re-creating Cocteau's story as a "dance opera." Les enfants Terribles is the most compelling Glass score beheld in many years.

It is not easy for a classical recording to truly inspire these days. This one does. Seeking common ground between the music of Friedrich Haendel and Philip Glass, Anthony Roth Costanzo alternatively sings works by the two composers in his beautiful raw soprano voice. He is accompanied by the early music Essemble Les Violons du Roy. Costanzo has created a musical unity that carriers the listeners with ease between the acoustic emotions of the Baroque and the Modern. A magnificent and moving recording.

Orange Mountain Music is proud to present the new album ESCAPE from guitarist Gerard Cousins featuring arrangements for solo guitar of Philip Glass's best known music. Appropriately, Cousins starts with a flowing account of Opening, the first track from Glass's iconic 1983 album Glassworks, designed to introduce people to the public to the composer’s music. Cousins follows the mood with four tracks from Glass's piano pieces Metamorphosis, the second of which, Metamorphosis No.2, became the basis for the piece Escape! from the Oscar Nominated score to The Hours. The album concludes with Knee Play 2 from Glass's 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, a landmark of 20th century theater, and finally Truman Sleeps from Glass's Golden Globewinning score to The Truman Show.