Einstein on the Beach.

I topped off the birthday weekend by watching - rather, witnessing - "Einstein on the Beach," the seminal opera work composed by Philip Glass and directed by Robert Wilson, at the LA Opera.  I'd heard about this from my boyfriend Rob, who pretty much had the avant-garde 4-act opera on repeat in his car the last few months, even though I have to admit, the sounds kinda made me dizzy and nauseated (this is coming from a girl who's played in orchestra for a good chunk of her younger years).  Nonetheless, when I saw that Einstein was coming to LA, I told Rob all about it - like a good girlfriend, right?  He went and bought the "cheap" tickets, at a whopping $77 a pop.  (cue side-discussion about the accessibility of music, whether or not art is skewed by economic demographics, not to mention the fact that Kanye and Kim Kardashian apparently attended opening night in a Lamborghini, etc etc...)

Anyway, 4 hours long with no intermission, it features a cast that does it all - singing, dancing, remembering seemingly nonsensical lyrics and delivering them at lightning speed...as well as a great bunch of musicians, including a stellar violinist, who was also Einstein, (Jennifer Koh) that must have played repetitive half-scales for 40 minutes straight at one point. The work is supposedly a statement on time, space, etc. I won't pretend I really know because my head is still wrapping itself around what I experienced today; but I will say this - I enjoyed the opera a lot more when I could hear the music along with the visuals; I am thoroughly impressed by the cast for their sheer endurance and precision; and I really appreciated the rhythmic landscape of it all - even if, yes, it was very dizzying at times.  As a musician watching all this, I took comfort in watching the pit orchestra, and pretty much made a game out of trying to figure out the ever-changing time signatures.

Here's where you can give "Einstein on the Beach" a listen: http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Einstein+On+The+Beach/3696937

And here's some info on it from LA Opera's website. Today was the last performance, but you never know when they'll put another one together again: http://www.laopera.com/season/13-14Season-at-a-Glance/Einstein/