THE WHITE RAVEN
The New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. Runs through Saturday
. (212) 875-5200.
THE orchestra lurches into a shimmer of Philip Glass’ minimalism, the curtain rises on a painterly design by Robert Wilson, and their collaborative opera, “The White Raven,” is under way.
So, for that matter, is – for the sixth time – Lincoln Center Festival 2001.
The idea for “The White Raven,” which was commissioned by the Portuguese government in 1990, with a libretto by Luisa Costa Gomes, was to mark the 500th anniversary of Portuguese explorers.
But that idea expanded into a fantasy of explorations, sights seen, history made and man as hero, mover and buffoon.
The opera was first given in Portugal, with much the same cast as well as conductor Dennis Russell Davies, in 1998. The present performances are in Portuguese, with English supertitles. Lucinda Childs is the English-speaking commentator.
The matrix of Glass’ music here still has the rockily repetitive simplicity that he and the other minimalists have made their own. Yet it also reaches out to more familiar operatic territory in its vocal lines.
As for Wilson’s contribution – he oversees direction, sets and lighting, while the imaginative costumes are credited to Moidele Bickel – this is extraordinary theater.
“White Raven” is a modern opera attuned to contemporary sensibility – something rather rare on the operatic stage.