Chicago Tribune: John Adams's "Luminously Beautiful" Opera "A Flowering Tree" Opens in Chicago

John Adams's opera A Flowering Tree receives its Midwest premiere tonight in the Chicago Opera Theater performance at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millenium Park. The composer will conduct the opening night performance as well as the second performance, this Saturday. Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein says the piece offers "the light of hope and renewal" and concludes: "Nobody who loves contemporary opera and music theater can afford to miss it."

A Flowering Tree, based on a Southern Indian folktale, is "Adams's answer to Mozart's The Magic Flute," writes von Rhein. "Both operas invoke the magic of transformation, both physical and spiritual." He goes on to write, "Adams' music is luminously beautiful, the entire opera a glorious multicultural paean to the ecology of the soul."

To read the article, with more details, visit chicagotribune.com. To learn more about the Chicago Opera Theater's production, its companion arts festival, India Blooms in Chicago, and tickets, visit chicagooperatheater.org. Check in with the Nonesuch Journal in the coming months for news of the premiere recording of A Flowering Tree, due out on Nonesuch this fall.