/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000001e87c7 rename

Einstein on the Beach is an opera scored and written by Philip Glass and designed and directed by...

Einstein on the Beach is an opera scored and written by Philip Glass and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. It also contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs. Einstein on the Beach is described by Glass as an "Opera in four acts for ensemble, chorus and soloists." This is Glass' first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours (a little under three and a half hours on CD) to complete, with no intermission. Given the length of the opera the audience was free to enter and leave as they desired. Einstein's musical score became the first in a loosely related trilogy, followed by Satyagraha (1980) and Akhnaten (1983). These three operas are defined by Philip Glass as "portrait" operas that portray men whose personal vision transformed the thinking of their time through the power of ideas and not arms. Glass and Wilson first met to discuss the prospects of a collaborative work, and decided on an opera of between four and five hours in length based around a historical persona. Wilson initially suggested Charlie Chaplin or Adolf Hitler, whom Glass outright rejected, while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi (later the