A Flowering Tree
A Flowering Tree is an opera in two acts composed by John Adams with a 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 in New York City, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
The story is based on an ancient Indian folk tale of the same title with translations by Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan. 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." This parallel was intended by the composer as the opera was commissioned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.
It is set for a small cast of three singers (baritone for the narrator, tenor for the prince, and lyric soprano for Kumudha), a large chorus (SATB), and three dancers.
Movements
- Act I Scene 1
- Act Il Scene 1: Orchestral Prelude
- Bride and Groom
- Kumudha and Her Sister…
- Kumudha’s Final Transformation
- Kumudha’s Prayer
- Mamá Mamá, ¿Por Qué Nos Pegas?
- One Morning…
- Scene 2: Flores Chorus
- Scene 3: Audience With the King
- Scene 3: Before I Laughed With Him Nightly
- Scene 4: Kumudha and the Beggar Minstrels
- Scene 4: The Wedding
- Scene 5: We Had All but Forgotten You, Prince
- The Bride Sunk Her Face…
- The Prince Recognizes Kumudha
- They Brought Her to Me
- “Days Passed…”
- “Kumudha Once More…”
- “You Are Cruel.”