The Reviews Are In: Monk’s ATLAS Earns Its Place in Operatic Repertory
“The truth … is that ATLAS is strong enough to withstand many different approaches and performances. In the future, if the world proceeds as it should, this is a piece that will be done again and again.” —San Francisco Chronicle
After the monumental effort of reconstructing Meredith Monk’s ATLAS for a revival at the Los Angeles Philharmonic this month, critics have poured out praise for this landmark production directed by Yuval Sharon. This presentation in LA, which comes almost three decades after the opera was first premiered, represents the first time Monk has given permission for another artist to direct her work.
Critics have resoundingly praised the opera as a masterpiece of the repertory that should now, with the newly available materials, be presented widely.
San Francisco Chronicle
“After all this time, the piece emerged once again with all its artistic virtues — its expressive generosity, its unmistakable musical lexicon, the gentle tug of its dramatic arc — gloriously intact.”
“Her musical language, a suavely ingratiating blend of quasi-minimalist repetitions and vocal techniques rooted in body work, is unlike anything else on the musical landscape.”
“The truth … is that ATLAS is strong enough to withstand many different approaches and performances. In the future, if the world proceeds as it should, this is a piece that will be done again and again.”
San Francisco Classical Voice
“It took a real leap of faith for Monk to trust Sharon to create his own vision of her opera. But she did, and the result is astounding — not just as a fantastic individual achievement, but to make a case that ATLAS deserves a place in the operatic repertory alongside Einstein on the Beach.”
New York Times
“mysterious beauty … the combination of sophistication and childlike wonder … radiant.”
New Yorker
“ATLAS is one of the great operas of the late twentieth century, and it deserves to travel as widely as its heroine.”
Los Angeles Times
“Monk’s elaborate style of vocalization, be it squeaks and grunts or crystalline song, express what words only hint at. Her mastery of rhythmic pulse, of natural melody that sounds less composed than plucked from the air, and imaginative vocal and instrumental character from the chamber orchestra provide a remarkable degree of communicability.”
“ATLAS … is the most illuminating of all.”
> Further information on Work: Atlas
Photo by Craig Mathew/Mathew imaging for the LA Phil
