"A Flowering Tree," which had its American premiere in Davies Hall this weekend, has some of John Adams' best work - in fact, it's a two-hour treasure house of beautiful music. Obviously a (or the) leading opera composer of our time, Adams has never given us such emotional, just plain gorgeous sound as in "Flowering Tree." It is a major, wonderful work, one which - significantly - leaves the listener wishing to hear it again, and wanting more like it. Coming from its Vienna world premiere, where it was part of a festival celebrating Mozart, the opera is somewhat related to "The Magic Flute," dealing with transformations. Adams and director Peter Sellars wrote the libretto based on an ancient southern Indian folktale about a young woman who can turn herself into a tree. She sacrifices her human form in order to support her poor family by selling the flowers she produces. A prince falls in love with the girl, and her transformations create dramatic conflicts, including a static second act that she spends as a stump. Adams conducting the San Francisco Symphony on three consecutive nights (this report is from Saturday), everything clicked, and considering the large, unusual forces employed in Sellars' production, that in itself is a triumph. Although thrilled by the three soloists, the chorus, and the Javanese dancers, my first acknowledgment is for the orchestra, especially the strings. Never has Adams lavished so much shimmering, hushed, singing music on the violins, and - with concertmaster Alexander Barantschik in the lead - those violins sang their hearts out all evening long. With "undertones" of Janacek, Ravel, and Richard Strauss, this music from Adams is the finest achievement of transformed, exalted minimalism. It is also different from the composer's other works. Of Adams' best, there is the great pathos of the choruses in "Death of Klinghoffer," and the moving grandeur of the "The Person'd God" aria from "Doctor Atomic," but "Flowering Tree" is not a work of highlights - it is a great opera of consistent high quality, although of many different sounds and moods. Unlike some of the intellectually-generated structure and the audible reaching for effect elsewhere, Adams here writes from the heart. Responding to that brilliantly, bass Eric Owens (narrator), soprano Jessica Rivera and tenor Russell Thomas sang simply, without artifice, and surpassingly well. Owens has grown enormously, from a "good bass" to one with potential to sing even the most challenging roles. Adams' narrator is similar to the Gurnemanz of "Parsifal" in interspersing Evangelist-type story-telling with personal comments and emotional response to the story. Owens shone in all aspects of the role. Rivera and Thomas, both making their local debut, impressed mightily with beauty of tone, powerful projection (quite apart from the lamentable Adams-Selllars insistence on amplification), and their stage work. It's such a waste, however, to have Rivera wriggle on the floor for most of Act 2, as a legless, armless tree trunk, rather than sing. The wonderful dancers enacting the story should have left the singers to do what they are best at. The veteran Javanese court dancer Rusini Sidi, the very young but accomplished Eko Supriyanto, and Astri Kusuma Wardani, who mixes Javanese classical dance and martial arts, have made major contributions to the production. While waiting for the Symphony Chorus' new director, Ragnar Bohlin, to take up his position, senior Chorus members take turns preparing productions. David J. Xiques was responsible for "Flowering Tree," the large, colorfully dressed Chorus singing with its accustomed excellence. Adams' choral writing here ranges from barely perceptibe background sound, almost as instruments of the orchestra, to some prominent, savage participation in the action. Late-night typos of the mind (thanks, Lisa!) A typo in the "Doctor Atomic" reference: the aria, of course, is "Three-Person'd God" Also, instead of the heroine spending her time in Act 2 as a tree stump, it's a partially transformed human: "a stump of flesh, a shapeless thing, a twisted, mutilated body." No change: the actual performance is a hearty, welcome surprise, even if you have a chance to hear the music before. You can quibble over details and the obvious dramatic slowdown in Act 2 (also true of "Doctor Atomic"), but this is an *opera* and a good one. Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html