UK premiere of Philip Glass' "Book of Longing"

[lazariuk]

In the conversation, Leonard labeled the sound "Glassical."

oooh !!! I missed that one. Thanks for clearing some confusion in my head.

[Joe Way]

Here is my transcript of Leonard's interview on "Jim Lehrer's News Hour."

My mother called to alert me so I missed the very beginning.

Cohen: Whether you have any actual aptitude for it or not, I've always thought of myself as a competent minor poet. I know who I'm up against.

Interviewer: You know who you are up against?

Cohen: Yeah, we're up against Dante, Shakespeare, Isiaah, King David, Homer...so you know, I think I do my job ok.

Interviewer: There's a poem in the book called, "Thousands." While we're on the subject would you read that for us?

Cohen: It is a very short poem but it speaks to the point.

"Out of the thousands
who are known
or want to be known
as poets,
maybe one or two
are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say
I am one of the fakes,
and this is my story,"

Interviewer: "I am one of the fakes and this is my story?"

Cohen: (laughter)

Interviewer: What's the difference for you between writing a poem and a song?

Cohen: Well, a poem has a certain or different time. For instance, a poem is a very private experience and it doesn't have a driving tempo. In other words, you can go back and forth and forward, you can linger. It's a completely different time reference. Whereas a song you have tempo, something that is moving swiftly-you can't stop it. You know and it's designed to move swiftly from mouth to mouth, from heart to heart. Where a poem really speaks to something that has no time. And there's a completely different perception.

Interviewer: That's interesting because with poetry we hear...poetry is often about music in a sense. A poem makes its own music in a sense.

Cohen: I'm not saying it's not musical-it's just a different tempo. And it's a tempo that migrates depending upon what the mood of the reader is.

Interviewer: I noticed there are some poems in this book that you've also recorded as songs.

Cohen: That's true. Sometimes a lyric can survive on the page. Sometimes it can, sometimes it can. I've tried to choose the ones that can survive on the page.

Interviewer: One of the things I've always noted in your work is the mix of the senuous and the spiritual, the body and the soul. Is that a fair description?

Cohen: Yes, well we do have both, you know.

Interviewer: (laughs) We do have both.

Cohen: We do have feelings that run from coarse to elevated. Everybody's got that you know. And then we're stuck with this body. You know we're all dying from this incurable disease called age.

Interviewer: The sense of aging is in this book.

Cohen: Yeah, definitely.

Interviewer: Does that signify that you are indeed feeling that?

Cohen: Of course, sure. Of course you feel that. My friend, Layton, our greatest poet said: "The inescapble lousiness of growing old."

Interviewer: "The inescapable lousiness of growing old?"

Cohen: That's right.

Interviewer: Is most of your work, in fact, autobiographical?

Cohen: Yeah (emphatically!). That's fair, but you know autobiographical takes in the imagination. Your imagination has a history, also. It is born, grows old, suffers decay and dies. The imagination is part of the whole biography.

Interviewer: There's a poem called, "Mission" which expresses some of this life. Would you read it?

Cohen: Sure, Oh thank you for asking me. I'd love to. I think I remember that poem.

"I've worked at my work
I've slept at my sleep
I've died at my death
And now I can leave

Leave what is needed
And leave what is full
Need in the spirit
And need in the hole

Beloved, I'm yours
As I've always been
From marrow to pore
From longing to skin

Now that my mission
Has come to an end:
Pray I'm forgiven
The life that I've led

The body I chased
It chased me as well
My longings a place
My dyings a sail"

At this point the national weather service took over with tornado warnings and I looked for shelter.

Love,

Joe

[Joe Way]

Here is the list of poems:

Prologue-I Can't Make The Hills
I Came Down From The Mountain
A Sip of Wine
Want to Fly
The Light Came Through The Window
Puppet Time
G-d Opened My Eyes
You Go Your Way
I Was Doing Something
Not A Jew
How Much I Love You
Babylon
I Enjoyed The Laughter
This Morning I Woke Up Again
I Want To Love You Now
Don't Have The Proof
The Night of Santiago (after the poem by Lorca)
Mother Mother
You Came To Me This Morning (for Sandy 1945-1998)
I Am Now Able
Roshi's Very Tired
Epilogue-Merely A Prayer

I dutifully scatched out the poems on the back of my e-ticket, but since it was dark and I couldn't see-my notes are relatively illegible. After the show ended, I was shown a basket of printed, "Libretto's" along with some small flash lights to use. We took several librettos-but they are all dog-eared already.

I was particularly taken with the dedication to Sandy-I never knew her, but she was like us all-someone who loved Leonard's work, found some friends here, and who's life took on a slightly different tack because of the connections. That Glass chose this poem to be the emotional highlight of his setting, and that Leonard or Glass insisted that the dedication remain through the Libretto, is a strong testament to the warmth and human feelings that these poems and music represent. I had really hoped to meet Marie who has been a constant internet resource for both Leonard and Anjani, but an ankle injury prevented her from attending. Marie inherited one of Sandy's cats after Sandy died-and all those of you who have relied on Marie's work through the years, should feel a closeness to that deep emotional level that Leonard's work has suggested in the telling. Those of you who don't know about this...what the heck..stick to the surface-the surface is fine.

Joe

[dick]

Wonderful posts....

Thanks Joe!

[Rob]

The chief executive of the Wales Millennium Centre, Jane Isherwood, has written the following review........

Review
Judith Isherwood
Chief Executive, Wales Millennium Centre

A few months ago I visited the Luminato Festival in Toronto which featured the World Première of a wonderful new collaboration between Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen, entitled Book of Longing. This performance will be visiting Wales Millennium Centre for its European Première on October 17 and 18.


I loved this work. I found the performance to be moving, powerful and witty in equal measure. Utterly unclassifiable in genre, it includes a mixture of theatrical and concert elements, with every element of the production - music, staging, lighting, imagery - helping it transcend traditional stage performance and become something truly original and unique.


Philip Glass composed the music for this production using poetry and sketches that Leonard Cohen created for his latest collection of writings. The work represents, in my opinion, a pinnacle of achievement for these two titans in the worlds of music and words. It’s performed by a live band (drawn from all genres of music), featuring Philip Glass himself on keyboards, and utilises a pre-recorded Leonard Cohen voiceover as well as four absolutely amazing live singers, who bring the piece to life.


I could talk more about Book of Longing; about how the work is comprised of so many sympathetic elements of the catalogues of these masters; how the words and imagery add to the music; how the climax of the show is one of the most affecting and poignant pieces I have ever seen. However, I think it’s far better that I leave it up to you to discover it for yourself this October.

Rob.

[jimbo]

is there any tickets left?

[Rob]

yes, check here

http://www.wmc.org.uk/ticketing/prodDet ... angCode=en

Rob

[lizzytysh]

That's a beautiful review. It makes me want to see it again and appreciate it in a different light... and from a much better seat, which I can't suggest strongly enough. If you're going to spend the money to go at all, spend whatever extra money it takes to get a good seat. Judging something from a distance leaves you at a disadvantage. It ends up being unfair to the experience, to you as the audience member and to the production.


~ Lizzy