A Flowering Tree

Operas by John Adams
Nixon in China (1987) The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995) El Niño (2000) Doctor Atomic (2005) A Flowering Tree (2006)
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A Flowering Tree is an opera in two acts composed by John Coolidge Adams with libretto by Adams and Peter Sellars, and commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, the San Francisco Symphony, the Barbican Centre in London, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, and the Berliner Philharmoniker. It premiered on November 14, 2006 in Vienna with Eric Owens as the narrator, Russell Thomas as the prince, and Jessica Rivera as Kumudha, and has since been performed in concert in Berlin, San Francisco and London. It is based on an ancient Indian folk tale of the same title with translations by Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan, and is scheduled to be performed in London in August 2007, in concert in Amsterdam in May 2008, and once again in 2009 at the Lincoln Center in New York.^[1]

The opera resembles Mozart's The Magic Flute in some ways; both operas adapt folk tales, in this case one from southern India, "describing a young couple undergoing rituals and trials to discover the transfiguring power of love."^[1] It is set for a small cast of three singers (baritone for the narrator, tenor for the prince, and lyric soprano for Kamudha), a large chorus (SATB), and three dancers. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two English horns, soprano recorder, alto recorder, two clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, two percussion, harp, celesta and strings.^[2]