Hydrogen Jukebox Opera

Finding a good librettist is the bane of an opera composer's existence. Ask Verdi and Richard Strauss. But Philip Glass, one of our most active, 20th-Century opera writers has found a librettist. "A real one," he says. It is poet Allen Ginsberg. Longtime neighbors in Greenwich Village, Glass and Ginsberg were "just acquaintances," Glass says, before the composer ran into the poet one day in a New York City bookstore in late 1987.

Finding a good librettist is the bane of an opera composer's existence. Ask Verdi and Richard Strauss. But Philip Glass, one of our most active, 20th-Century opera writers has found a librettist. "A real one," he says. It is poet Allen Ginsberg. Longtime neighbors in Greenwich Village, Glass and Ginsberg were "just acquaintances," Glass says, before the composer ran into the poet one day in a New York City bookstore in late 1987.

One of the Very Important Moments--doubtless there are many--in the life of Ann Carlson came at age 12 while watching the New York City Ballet. The orchestra began to play. The ballerinas began to move. And then, with a sudden tap tap tap of his baton, the conductor brought everything to a halt. Something was off--probably the tempo. In seconds the dancers were back in their starting positions and the show began again smoothly. But in those few moments, everything had changed.