The Gospel According to the Other Mary
The Gospel According to the Other Mary is an opera-oratorio by the American composer John Adams. The world premiere took place on May 31, 2012, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic who also premiered the staged version on March 7, 2013, at the same venue.
The work focuses on the final few weeks of the life of Jesus, including his passion, from the point of view of "the other Mary", Mary of Bethany (sometimes mis-identified as Mary Magdalene), her sister Martha, and her brother, Lazarus. The libretto by Peter Sellars draws its texts from the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible and from Rosario Castellanos, Rubén Darío, Dorothy Day, Louise Erdrich, Hildegard von Bingen, June Jordan, and Primo Levi.
The Gospel According to the Other Mary was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Movements
- Act I Scene III. "And When He Thus Had Spoken"
Act I
- Scene I. "The next day in the city jail we were searched for drugs"
- Scene I. "Now a certain woman named Martha welcomed him Into her house"
- Scene II. "And she had a sister named mary"
- Scene II. "I am surprised that I am beginning to pray daily"
- Scene II. Chorus "En un día de amor"
- Scene III. "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus"
- Scene III. Lazarus Dies
- Scene III. "Why standest thou afar off, lord?"
- Scene III. "In my own quietly explosive here"
- Scene III. "Don't touch my left arm!"
- Scene III. "When Mary was come where Jesus was"
- Scene III. "Jesus said, take ye away the stone"
- Scene III. Chorus "Drop down, ye heavens"
- Scene III. Lazarus Rises From the Dead
- Scene IV. "For the grave cannot praise thee"
- Scene IV. Mary Washes the Feet of Jesus
- Scene IV. Supper at Bethany
- Scene V. "And there were some who had indignation within themselves"
- Scene V. "Tell me: how is this night different from all other night?"
- Scene V. "We know there will be no utopias"
Act II
- Scene I. Arrest of Jesus
- Scene I. Chorus "Who rips his flesh down the seams"
- Scene II. "The said defendants, on or about August 2nd"
- Scene II. "Up at two A.M., picketed all day"
- Scene II. Arrest of the Women
- Scene II. Prayer of the Mexican Women
- Scene III. "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me"
- Scene III. "Now there stood at the cross of Jesus"
- Scene III. "When Jesus saw his mother"
- Scene III. Golgotha
- Scene IV. "His son cried out to him"
- Scene IV. Night
- Scene V. Chorus "It is spring"
- Scene V. Mary Awakes at Dawn
- Scene V. The Sepulchre; Mary's Awakening
- Scene VI. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"
- Scene VI. Earthquake and Recognition