Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Adams: The Gospel According to the Other Mary

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host, Keith Brown, writes:

This Sunday's audio presentation looks forward to Easter Sunday. You could describe John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary as a twenty first century take on the Passion oratorio of centuries past. The "Other Mary" in question is Mary Magdalen, who with her sister, Martha, and brother, Lazarus, were friends and followers of Jesus. For the modern American music-master of minimalism, Peter Sellars crafted a libretto combining Old and New Testament sources with the poetry of writers as divergent as the twentieth century Catholic activist Dorothy Day and the medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Three solo singers portray an alternative Holy Family of two sisters and brother. Jesus's miracles, His suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection are witnessed from their perspective. There is no solo voice of Jesus. Instead, a trio of countertenors deliver some of His words and provide the commentary of the Evangelist. The strident minimalist style is much toned down in the more recent compositions of John Adams (b. 1947).

The world premiere recording of what might alternatively be called Adams's "Passion of Mary Magdalen" was issued through Deutsche Grammophon in 2014 on two compact discs. The premiere took place in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Gustavo Dudamel directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic and LA Master Chorale. Reviewer Ronald E. Grames praised the recording in the pages of Fanfare magazine (July/August, 2014 issue). "Without a doubt," he wrote,"The Gospel According to the Other Mary is controversial in concept. It could not be otherwise with Peter Sellars at the helm. But it is also powerful theater, given extraordinary depth by music of remarkable authority, variety and nuance."