Sunday, October 21, 2007

Civil War Sing-Along

Thursday night I witnessed history in the making: a new work from the San Francisco Opera to commissioned just for them: Appomattox. With music by uniquely American composer Philip Glass,(whose sort of haunting repetitive themes are almost ubiquitous in his movie soundtracks), the opera stages the most significant event in American history: the surrender of the South by General Lee to General Grant at that famous site, and takes us from the lead up to the surrender to its aftermath, 10 and then 100 years out. History doesn't really lend itself so well to a good story arc, so the momentum wasn't there in the opera; nor does it lead to much of a build-up. Not to say it didn't move me: In fact, being reminded that this struggle over slavery was so recent as we fast-forward to a presidential race, which, at least on the democratic side, features a black candidate and a woman as the two lead contenders -- seems highly improbable given the disaster post-Civil War Jim Crow laws, not to mention the struggle for civil rights and women's equality. It is a tragedy with a happy -- or at least hopeful -- ending.


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