interviewed by Nicholas Zurbrugg
The following interview took place on September 10th, 1988, at the River Plaza Hotel, during the four day season of 1000 Airplanes on the Roof as part of the “Expo on Stage” programme at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, Australia.
NICHOLAS ZURBRUGGI thought I might begin by asking you about your work with opera and with related multimedia theatre and performances.
PHILIP GLASS By "opera" do you mean the more traditional kind of singer, chorus, orchestra?
NICHOLAS ZURBRUGGWell, I'm not sure. Would you call 1000 Airplanes on the Roof an opera?
PHILIP GLASSNo, I don't. I've actually written proper opera, so I don't need to call everything I do "opera". For me opera really has come to mean those pieces that I intend to have produced by opera companies. In other words if the Stuttgart Opera can do it – that's a good example of a repertory opera house – anything the Stuttgart Opera House can do, I'm willing to call an opera. That includes Einstein On The Beach which they're doing this year, Akhnaten and Satyagraha which they've already done. They could do any of the other ones. I can't do Akhnaten by myself. But I can do 1000 Airplanes – I have the material and the physical talents to do it within a small company. I guess it's really what I'd call music-theatre.
NICHOLAS ZURBRUGGWould you distinguish that from old-fashioned performance art?
PHILIP GLASSYes, I would. It's nice that you call it "old-fashioned", because I can remember when it began and so can you I'm sure. I remember seeing Bruce Nauman doing performance pieces, Allan Kaprow, people like that. Many of these... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
