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 central figure of his 1979 opera
Satyagraha).
Albert Einstein was the eventual compromise. The title appears to reference the apocalyptic novel
On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The opera was originally to be titled
Einstein on the Beach on Wall Street but was later shortened; neither Glass nor Wilson remember when or why. The music was written in 1975 while Glass was in
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Glass recounts the collaborative process: "I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time."
1976 premiere and first tour in Avignon, France, site of the opera's 1976 premiere
Einstein on the Beach premiered on July 25, 1976, at the Théâtre Municipal in Avignon, France, as part of the Avignon Festival. It was performed by the
Philip Glass Ensemble and presented by the Byrd Hoffmann Foundation. Lucinda Childs, Robert Wilson, pupil Sheryl S. Sutton, and Samuel M. Johnson filled the primary characters. All three would go on to reappear in the 1984 BAM revival.
1980s The
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) next mounted the opera in 1984. A one-hour documentary about this production appeared on public television, titled
Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera. The documentary was shown at the Morgan Library & Museum during its exhibition “
Robert Wilson/Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach” which ran from July 13 through November 4, 2012. In 1988, opera director
Achim Freyer, who had staged the world premiere of Glass's
Akhnaten in Stuttgart, Germany in 1984, designed and staged a reworked version in a highly abstract style, with new spoken texts from the early 20th century, at the
Stuttgart State Opera. As with the premiere, this version was also conducted by
Michael Riesman.
1990s In 1992, a revival was mounted by International Production Associates that included the participation of Wilson, Glass and Childs. The production was re-staged at the
McCarter Theatre at
Princeton University. It subsequently toured to Frankfurt, Melbourne, Barcelona, Madrid, Tokyo, Brooklyn (BAM), and Paris.
2000s In 2007,
Carnegie Hall presented a concert version of
Einstein in which violinist
Tim Fain appeared as soloist.
The New York Times wrote about his performance, "And Tim Fain, the violinist, gave the solo passages in the second, fourth and fifth 'Knee Plays' and in the climactic, swirling 'Spaceship Interior' scene an electrifying, virtuosic workout." Fain tours extensively with Philip Glass in duo recitals and they always include the solo from "Knee Play 2" on their program.
2010s A revival with the participation of all the original collaborators was commissioned by the
New York City Opera (NYCO) to open their 2009–10 season. When General Manager designate
Gerard Mortier withdrew from NYCO, the revival, along with the rest of Mortier's programming, was canceled. The team that had organized the New York City Opera production put together another group to remount
Einstein, under the management of Pomegranate Arts. After a month of rehearsals overseen by Glass, Wilson and Childs, the first performance in 20 years took place on January 20, 2012, presented by the University Musical Society at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Two additional performances that weekend followed. The performance featured Kate Moran and
Helga Davis replacing Childs' and Sutton's roles respectively.
Grammy Award-nominated violinist
Jennifer Koh played the role of Einstein in the preview and alternated with
Antoine Silverman for the subsequent tour. The other instrumental performers and
solfege soprano for these performances are the current members of the
Philip Glass Ensemble without Glass himself performing. The performers in the 2012 production included members of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company: Ty Boomershine, Vincent McCloskey, Matthew Pardo, Patrick O'Neill, Stuart Singer, Lonnie Poupard, Caitlin Scranton, Sharon Milanese, Katie Dorn, Katherine Helen Fisher, Anne Lewis, Shakirah Stewart, and Sarah Hillmon. The chorus for this revival was composed of sopranos Michèle Eaton, Melanie Russell, Lindsay Kesselman; altos Hai-Ting Chinn, Solange Merdinian, Kate Maroney; tenors John Kawa, Philip Anderson, Tomas Cruz; and basses Greg Purnhagen, Joe Damon Chappel, and Jason Charles Walker. The official tour began on March 16, 2012 after a single preview the previous evening with the premiere at the
Opéra Berlioz in Montpellier, France. This was followed by performances at the
Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, Italy; the
Barbican Centre, London; the
Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto; the
Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn, New York;
Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, California; the Teatro del
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City: in 2013, at
Het Muziektheater/
De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam;
Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong;
Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;
Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles: and, in 2014 there were performances in Paris and Berlin. In October 2015 this production came to an end with performances in
Gwangju, South Korea. This touring production of
Einstein on the Beach was commissioned by: BAM; the Barbican, London; Cal Performances with the University of California, Berkeley;
Luminato – Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity; De Nederlandse Opera/The Amsterdam Music Theatre; Opéra national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon; and the
University Musical Society of the University of Michigan. From July 13 through November 4, 2012, the
Morgan Library & Museum exhibited “
Robert Wilson/Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach” A new staging of
Einstein on the Beach premiered at the
Opernhaus Dortmund, Germany, in April 2017. It was directed by and was the first production without Glass or Wilson personally involved. The opera was also staged at the
Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2019 as part of La Batie performing arts festival. That production was directed by . == Synopsis ==