Thank you, Gregg, for your kind words and helpful observations! It was a truly thrilling experience and we are looking forward to living with the piece over the next year. Glad to know you enjoyed our beginning!

Thanks, Jack! So glad it lived up to your expectations. Look forward to seeing you in Toronto!

Thanks for the kind words, Jerry! Hope you will be able to see the show. It continues to be an incredible experience, and we are all very excited for the weekend!

Mind blowing is definitely the right phrase! He, Philip, and Lucinda are all fantastic to work with, and we have learned so much from them already. So happy you’ll be able to see it, Jack!

Thanks, Greg! Sorry to miss you, but thanks for being in touch!

Thanks so much for your kind words, Jacques!

We’re looking forward to it!

Hi Gregory! Unfortunately, no, but here you can find a complete list of the cities on the tour: http://www.pomegranatearts.com/project-einstein/tour.html
Thanks for your interest!

Hi Mark! We had our first day of rehearsal yesterday- 12 hours of sound checks, costuming, and familiarizing ourselves with the Power Center. All is going very well, and we are ready for more today! Probably the best example of a gesture from the opera is the way we walk whenever we move on stage. It’s called the “Einstein Walk” and is based closely on a historical photograph of Albert Einstein in his study. Our arms are curved out from our bodies slightly with space underneath them, our hands are in loose fists right by our sides, and we walk, heads raised, but eyes lowered, very slowly, carefully, and with total awareness of how we transfer our weight from the heels to the balls of our feet until we reach our destination. Audiences will see this walk in many scenes of the opera, and will hopefully recognize a bit of Einstein in it!

Thanks, Mark! The cast arrived today, and I am so excited to welcome them here to Ann Arbor for the start of our rehearsals tomorrow! To answer your question, there are some similarities, as every operatic role requires a great deal of physical and mental energy, which must be practiced and developed over time, but in many ways, my preparation for Einstein has been completely unique from other operatic experiences. We don’t have specific characters or plot lines from which to draw, but the styles of music and movement we embody in this piece are so distinctive and powerful, I think they provide the foundation for both our understanding and our interpretation. Robert Wilsons’ direction focuses our attention on small details, making each significant, and thus requiring us to imbue every gesture, no matter how large or small, with great intention and purpose. This level of focus is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Also, Glass’ music demands total rhythmic precision, pitch control, and sometimes super-human stamina from us as a chorus, so we are learning to stretch our abilities in these areas! As for what this opera “means,” I think the beauty of it is that it will mean different things to different people. This piece, in all its many details, is a symbolic representation of Albert Einstein, so I think every member of the audience will bring his/her own knowledge base to the performance, be immersed in the wonderfully distinct images, sounds, and ideas presented, and then draw individual conclusions about the man, his life, and his contributions. In this way, the audience actually interacts with the opera, which is one of the reasons it is such an exciting and dynamic performance experience!

Hi Carrie! Thanks so much for your comment. UMS will be presenting Einstein in preview performances at The Power Center in Ann Arbor January 20th-22nd. Hope to see you there!