This 12-minute track is a excerpt from the monumental Philip Glass/Robert Wilson collaboration Einstein on the Beach. It’s often called an opera, and to a certain extent that’s accurate, but it’s also, to a certain extent, not entirely accurate. For one thing, there’s not much in the way of a traditional narrative plot; for another, traditional opera forms like arias have been thrown out the window entirely. On the other hand, “opera” is probably the only really appropriate word to use to describe its potent synthesis of music and theater. I’ve never seen Einstein in person—my exposure has been limited to owning the recording and watching a PBS special about the show. Perhaps one day Wilson and Glass will decide to remount the production…
If you were wondering, the slightly surreal stream-of-consciousness lyrics were written by Christopher Knowles, an autistic poet who has worked often with Wilson.