Philip Glass is unsure of how many operas he has written, thoughit is upwards of eighteen. This doesn’t quite put him into the Donizetti sphere, but it does distinguish him among twentieth-century composers. Einstein on the Beach, a collaboration with Robert Wilson, is his most famous work, and the “history” operas on Gandhi and Akhnaten have been revived. His penchant for examining historical figures continues with The White Raven, on the career of Vasco da Gama, and with the current Galileo Galilei. Galileo premiered last spring at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and was brought to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House as its opening for the 2002 Next Wave Festival.

This ninety-minute “opera,” which is more oratorio/pageant than dramatic work, was written by Mary Zimmerman with Glass and Arnold Weinstein and was directed by Zimmerman. It tells Galileo’s story backwards in nine s ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase