Friday, January 14, 2005

I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky

a wonderful opera by John Adams. Nope, not the dead American president - but a very alive American who hails from Massachussets and winters in Arizona. I heard it first on ABC FM Melbourne about 6 years ago (way before I ever thought I'd be living in Arizona) but I'm listening to it as I write. He intertwines the California '3 strikes and you're out' laws with the 1989 earthquake and the experience of a Mexican Illegal Immigrant bewailing the loss of her Spanish language, using music that runs the gamut from Mahler to The Doors. Well worth the hearing!

'I think that this land belongs to a gun,
and we have no rights, standing under the sun...'

How many operas do you know of that have an INS agent as a character?

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