The Photographer is a chamber opera by composer Philip Glass that is based on the homicide trial of photographer Eadweard Muybridge. The opera is based on words drawn from the trial as well as Muybridge's letters to his wife. Commissioned by the Holland Festival, the opera was first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.
In 1872, businessman and former Governor of California Leland Stanford hired Muybridge to settle a question. Stanf...
more
The Photographer is a chamber opera by composer Philip Glass that is based on the homicide trial of photographer Eadweard Muybridge. The opera is based on words drawn from the trial as well as Muybridge's letters to his wife. Commissioned by the Holland Festival, the opera was first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.
In 1872, businessman and former Governor of California Leland Stanford hired Muybridge to settle a question. Stanford claimed that there was a point in a horse's full gallop when all four hooves were off the ground. To answer this proposition, Muybridge developed a scheme for instantaneous picture capture. Muybridge's technology involved prescriptive chemical bath formulas and an electrical trigger created by Stanford's electrical engineer, John D. Issacs.
In 1874, still living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Muybridge discovered that his wife had a lover, a Major Harry Larkyns. On October 17, 1874, he sought out Larkyns; said, "Good evening, Major, my...
less
