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White Raven (opera)
White Raven is an opera in five acts and three knee plays, for soloists, choir and orchestra, composed in 1991 by Philip Glass in collaboration with Robert Wilson, with libretto by Luísa Costa Gomes. Commissioned by the National Commission for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries in the Teatro Real in Madrid,[1][2][3] the world premiere of the work (in Portuguese under the name O Corvo Branco) took place on the occasion of the International Exhibition, 26 September 1998 in the Teatro Camões in Lisbon, directed by Dennis Russell Davies. The Spanish premiere, under the direction of Günter Neuhold took place on the 28 November 1998 (a live television broadcast was subsequently broadcast on the channel TVE) and the American premiere at Lincoln Center, in New York, directed by Dennis Russell Davies and with choreography by Lucinda Childs, 10 July 2001. ConceptionWhen contacted in the early 1990s by António Mega Ferreira, member of the Portuguese Commission and future Expo '98 Commissioner, Glass, who had just written The Voyage to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America, initially shows no enthusiasm for the idea of redoing an opera on the theme of discovery. Invited to think about it again, he accepts on condition that Robert Wilson be part of the project. He then left for Brazil where he composed music for a whole winter. Originally, O Corvo Branco was to be part of a diptych of which it would have been the conclusion. The first part, which was never written, was to be called The Palace Of Arabian Nights and focused on the development and expansion of Islam from the 9th century to the Renaissance. O Corvo Branco covers the rest of the story, from the 15th century to the 21st century. The reason this other part of the diptych never was done is believed to be due to a misunderstanding between Glass and Wilson.[4]  The title White Raven is taken from Greek mythology: Apollo, in love with Princess Coronis, daughter of Phlegias, king of the Lapiths, entrusted a white crow, his favorite companion, to watch over her. But as the days went by, the bird, finding its mission more and more boring, decided one night to betray its master's trust. The raven told Apollo that Coronis was cheating on him with a mortal named Ischys. Mad with rage, Apollo killed the young girl with an arrow in the chest before realizing that the crow had lied. To punish him, Apollo transformed with his fiery hand his immaculate plumage into a collection of feathers as black as coal. The white crow is therefore here a messenger and a symbol of lost innocence.[5] As with the other collaborations between Glass and Wilson (Einstein on the Beach, The CIVIL warS and Monsters of Grace), White Raven doesn't really tell a story. The libretto presents a sort of panorama of characters and events by mixing poetic verses with scientific treatises, newspaper headlines or, as in the finale, a long list of Portuguese historical figures.[6] In this sense, the opera is not so much a celebration of exploration, but a meditation, an open reflection on the process and meaning of the concept of discovery, from the expeditions of the famous Portuguese explorer to the modern era of missions on the Moon, and until the future exploration of the Universe.[7] Anthony Tommasini wrote in his review for The New York Times:
Cast and characters
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