Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton discuss Appomattox September 25, 2007

It was a turning point in American history, and the climax of a powerful personal drama about two proud men. After four years and the loss of 600,000 lives, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to his unionist counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, bringing the Civil War to an end.

The intense emotions of this landmark day are compellingly conveyed by the hypnotic music of Philip Glass in this highly anticipated world premiere. The dazzling creative team includes an Academy Award winner (librettist Christopher Hampton), a two-time Tony Award winner (director George C. Wolfe) and an acclaimed champion of new music (conductor Dennis Russell Davies).

Come hear Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton, in person, discussing the genesis of their project.

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about Philip Glass:

Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

The operas – “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha,” “Akhnaten,” and “The Voyage,” among many others – play throughout the world’s leading houses, and rarely to an empty seat.

Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as “The Hours” and Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun,” while “Koyaanisqatsi,” his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since “Fantasia.”

His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop and world music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music -- simultaneously.

about Christopher Hampton:

Christopher Hampton is a British playwright, screen writer, and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film Dangerous Liaisons. In 1988, Mr. Hampton won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the BAFTA for Best Screenplay, for Dangerous Liasions, which he adapted from his own play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Through the 1970’s his work dominated the West End with such classics as The Philanthropist, Savages and Total Eclipse, which was also adapted into a film. Mr. Hampton is also well known for writing the libretto for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard, for which he won a Tony Award.

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