A Flowering Tree

Submitted by nonesuch on
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

John Adams wrote his 2006 opera for, he says, "a time of global awareness." The composer drew inspiration from Mozart's Magic Flute and ancient Indian folk-tales; the libretto, co-written by Adams and director Peter Sellars, is in English and Spanish. The New Yorker calls the work "opulent, dreamlike, fiercely lyrical"; the Los Angeles Times calls this "a terrific recording."

Description

Click HERE to open and download a PDF (7 MB) of the full-color booklet for A Flowering Tree, with photos from the production, notes by pianist Sarah Cahill, the complete libretto by the composer and director Peter Sellars, and recording credits.



“The score is opulent, dreamlike, fiercely lyrical, at times shadowy and strange—unlike anything that the composer has written …”The New Yorker

Nonesuch released A Flowering Tree, the latest opera by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer John Adams, on September 23, 2008. The opera was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and was premiered at the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna in November 2006. The composer leads the London Symphony Orchestra and Venezuela’s Schola Cantorum Caracas, directed by Maria Guinand, on this recording—which features tenor Russell Thomas, soprano Jessica Rivera, and bass-baritone Eric Owens.

Adams and his longtime collaborator, co-librettist/director Peter Sellars, adapted an Indian folktale to create A Flowering Tree. The opera shares with Mozart’s The Magic Flute the themes of youth, magic, transformation, and the dawning of moral awareness. The work was commissioned by New Crowned Hope, San Francisco Symphony, Barbican Centre, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

A Flowering Tree tells the story of an impoverished young Indian girl, Kumudha, who has the magical ability to transform herself into a tree and sells her blossoms at the palace to help her ailing mother. The Prince falls in love with her, and they marry but are torn apart by his jealous sister. After Kumudha is cast out into a netherworld as half woman, half tree, and the Prince becomes a wandering beggar, they meet again years later at the prince’s sister’s palace. No longer physically recognizable, Kumudha reunites with her prince through her beautiful singing voice.

Critics have praised A Flowering Tree since its debut. The New York Times said, “Mr. Adams really goes for it. His score is alive with innocence and magic, which buzz in the violins, chime softly from the bells and blow in little windy phrases on recorders at the moment of enchantment.” The Chicago Tribune said, “The score is alive with pulsing strings, glinting metallic percussion and his trademark jumpy rhythmic patter … a compelling achievement.” And the Los Angeles Times called this "a terrific recording."

The fall of 2008 was busy for John Adams. His memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life—which details his youth, education, and emergence as one of the leading artists of our time—was released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October. That same month, his acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic made its New York premiere in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera—marking the first time the composer’s work will be presented at the esteemed opera house.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced and edited by Martin Sauer
Sound engineer and mixing: Tobias Lehmann
Assistant engineer recording: Ansgar Wempe
Assistant engineer editing and mixing, mastering engineer: René Möller
Recording facilities: Teldex Studio Berlin
Recorded at the Barbican Centre, London, August 7-12, 2007
This recording was made possible by support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program.
Original sound design by Mark Grey
Original Javanese dance by Eko Supriyanto, Astri Kusama and Rusini Sidi

Libretto by John Adams and Peter Sellars, adapted from the Indian folktale and poetry in translations by A.K. Ramanujan
Music by John Adams, published by Boosey & Hawkes

Design by John Heiden and Nick Steinhardt, Smog Design, Inc.
Photography by Ruth Walz and John Adams
Cover image courtesy of Roli Books (New Delhi, India), from their book Erotic Literature of Ancient India by Sandhya Mulchandani

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

327100

Number of Discs in Set
2discs
Album Status
Artist Name
John Adams
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Jessica Rivera, soprano
Russell Thomas, tenor
Eric Owens, bass-baritone

London Symphony Orchestra
John Adams, conductor
Violin I: Stephanie Gomley, leader; Lennox Mackenzie, Helena Wood, Nigel Broadbent, Ginette Decuyper, Michael Humphrey, Claire Parfitt, Harriet Rayfield, Colin Renwick, Nicole Wilson
Violin II: Evgeny Grach, Sarah Quinn, Miya Ichinose, Norman Clarke, Matthew Gardner, Belinda McFarlane, Andrew Pollock, Hazel Mulligan
Viola: Gillianne Haddow, Malcolm Johnston, Maxine Moore, Peter Norriss, Jonathan Welch, Natasha Wright
Cello: Alexander Somov, Jennifer Brown, Mary Bergin, Noel Bradshaw, Hilary Jones, Francis Saunders
Double Bass: Colin Paris, Patrick Laurence, Michael Francis, Matthew Gibson, Gerald Newson
Flute: Andrew Nicholson, Martin Parry
Piccolo: Sharon Williams
Oboe: Gareth Hulse, Kate Clemmow
Cor Anglais: Christine Pendrill
Clarinet: Fiona Cross, Sarah Thurlow
Bass Clarinet: John Stenhouse
Bassoon: Robert Bourton, Joost Bosdijk
Contrabassoon: Dominic Morgan
Horn: Tim Jones, John Ryan, Angela Barnes, Jonathan Lipton, Nic Branston
Trumpet: Christopher Deacon, Gerald Ruddock
Trombone: Dudley Bright, James Maynard, Andrew Waddicor
Timpani: Dominic Hackett
Percussion: Neil Percy, David Jackson, Chris Thomas, Scott Bywater
Harp: Karen Vaughan
Celesta: John Alley
Soprano & Alto Recorder: Marion Scott, Ben Norbury
 
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
Alberto Grau, founding conductor
Artistic Directors: María Guinand and Ana María Raga
Assistant Directors: Luimar Arismendi, Pablo Morales, and Víctor González
Vocal Coaches: Elizabeth Maldonado and Verónica Sosa
Sopranos: Adriana González, Ana María Raga, Darlene Balza, Flavia Ranzolin, Flor Yánez, Genitte Peña, Iris Pagano,
Isabel Hernández, Marita Montero, Rima Ibrahim, Rosalba Alvarez, Ruth Rojas, Samia Ibrahim, Verónica Sosa, Yolanda Gómez
Altos: Carla Aular, Elizabeth Maldonado, Flor Martínez, Gioconda Cabrera, Luimar Arismendi, Magda Albarracín, Marina Esayag, Sonia González de Páez, Virginia Largo, Yulene Velásquez
Tenors: Daniel González, Jesús Hidalgo, John Martínez, José E. Castillo, José Russo, Juan de Sousa, Luis G. Cabrera, Miguel Castro, Otto Prieto, Pedro Sequera, Reinaldo Justo, Reynaldo Márquez, Said Barrios
Basses / Baritones: Alejandro Figueroa, Andrés Ferrer, Carlos Rojas, Edwing Tenías, Javier Silva, José G. Manrique, Martín Camacho, Pablo Morales, Roberto Medina, Samuel Dávila, Vìctor Gonzále

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597996517BUN
Label
MP3
Price
18.00
UPC
075597996500
  • 327100

News & Reviews

  • Girls of the Golden West, John Adams’ eighth music theater work to be released by Nonesuch, is due April 26. The composer leads the LA Phil in this recording made in Disney Hall, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Grant Gershon. You can hear the aria "Wagon Ride," featuring Davóne Tines and Julia Bullock, now. For the opera, which tells the story of the California Gold Rush, longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars drew from original sources from the era—letters, journals, newspaper articles, and familiar song lyrics—to create the libretto. The cast also includes Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, and Ryan McKinny.

  • The Metropolitan Opera has announced its 2024–25 season, including the Met premiere of John Adams's latest opera, Antony and Cleopatra, on May 12, 2025. The adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama stars soprano Julia Bullock, following her company debut in Adams’s El Niño this April, as Cleopatra, opposite bass-baritone Gerald Finley’s Antony. Adams himself conducts a new staging by director Elkhanah Pulitzer, who transports the story from ancient Rome to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. Performances run through June 7, 2025. 

Buy Now

  • About This Album

    Click HERE to open and download a PDF (7 MB) of the full-color booklet for A Flowering Tree, with photos from the production, notes by pianist Sarah Cahill, the complete libretto by the composer and director Peter Sellars, and recording credits.



    “The score is opulent, dreamlike, fiercely lyrical, at times shadowy and strange—unlike anything that the composer has written …”The New Yorker

    Nonesuch released A Flowering Tree, the latest opera by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer John Adams, on September 23, 2008. The opera was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and was premiered at the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna in November 2006. The composer leads the London Symphony Orchestra and Venezuela’s Schola Cantorum Caracas, directed by Maria Guinand, on this recording—which features tenor Russell Thomas, soprano Jessica Rivera, and bass-baritone Eric Owens.

    Adams and his longtime collaborator, co-librettist/director Peter Sellars, adapted an Indian folktale to create A Flowering Tree. The opera shares with Mozart’s The Magic Flute the themes of youth, magic, transformation, and the dawning of moral awareness. The work was commissioned by New Crowned Hope, San Francisco Symphony, Barbican Centre, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

    A Flowering Tree tells the story of an impoverished young Indian girl, Kumudha, who has the magical ability to transform herself into a tree and sells her blossoms at the palace to help her ailing mother. The Prince falls in love with her, and they marry but are torn apart by his jealous sister. After Kumudha is cast out into a netherworld as half woman, half tree, and the Prince becomes a wandering beggar, they meet again years later at the prince’s sister’s palace. No longer physically recognizable, Kumudha reunites with her prince through her beautiful singing voice.

    Critics have praised A Flowering Tree since its debut. The New York Times said, “Mr. Adams really goes for it. His score is alive with innocence and magic, which buzz in the violins, chime softly from the bells and blow in little windy phrases on recorders at the moment of enchantment.” The Chicago Tribune said, “The score is alive with pulsing strings, glinting metallic percussion and his trademark jumpy rhythmic patter … a compelling achievement.” And the Los Angeles Times called this "a terrific recording."

    The fall of 2008 was busy for John Adams. His memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life—which details his youth, education, and emergence as one of the leading artists of our time—was released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October. That same month, his acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic made its New York premiere in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera—marking the first time the composer’s work will be presented at the esteemed opera house.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Jessica Rivera, soprano
    Russell Thomas, tenor
    Eric Owens, bass-baritone

    London Symphony Orchestra
    John Adams, conductor
    Violin I: Stephanie Gomley, leader; Lennox Mackenzie, Helena Wood, Nigel Broadbent, Ginette Decuyper, Michael Humphrey, Claire Parfitt, Harriet Rayfield, Colin Renwick, Nicole Wilson
    Violin II: Evgeny Grach, Sarah Quinn, Miya Ichinose, Norman Clarke, Matthew Gardner, Belinda McFarlane, Andrew Pollock, Hazel Mulligan
    Viola: Gillianne Haddow, Malcolm Johnston, Maxine Moore, Peter Norriss, Jonathan Welch, Natasha Wright
    Cello: Alexander Somov, Jennifer Brown, Mary Bergin, Noel Bradshaw, Hilary Jones, Francis Saunders
    Double Bass: Colin Paris, Patrick Laurence, Michael Francis, Matthew Gibson, Gerald Newson
    Flute: Andrew Nicholson, Martin Parry
    Piccolo: Sharon Williams
    Oboe: Gareth Hulse, Kate Clemmow
    Cor Anglais: Christine Pendrill
    Clarinet: Fiona Cross, Sarah Thurlow
    Bass Clarinet: John Stenhouse
    Bassoon: Robert Bourton, Joost Bosdijk
    Contrabassoon: Dominic Morgan
    Horn: Tim Jones, John Ryan, Angela Barnes, Jonathan Lipton, Nic Branston
    Trumpet: Christopher Deacon, Gerald Ruddock
    Trombone: Dudley Bright, James Maynard, Andrew Waddicor
    Timpani: Dominic Hackett
    Percussion: Neil Percy, David Jackson, Chris Thomas, Scott Bywater
    Harp: Karen Vaughan
    Celesta: John Alley
    Soprano & Alto Recorder: Marion Scott, Ben Norbury
     
    Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
    Alberto Grau, founding conductor
    Artistic Directors: María Guinand and Ana María Raga
    Assistant Directors: Luimar Arismendi, Pablo Morales, and Víctor González
    Vocal Coaches: Elizabeth Maldonado and Verónica Sosa
    Sopranos: Adriana González, Ana María Raga, Darlene Balza, Flavia Ranzolin, Flor Yánez, Genitte Peña, Iris Pagano,
    Isabel Hernández, Marita Montero, Rima Ibrahim, Rosalba Alvarez, Ruth Rojas, Samia Ibrahim, Verónica Sosa, Yolanda Gómez
    Altos: Carla Aular, Elizabeth Maldonado, Flor Martínez, Gioconda Cabrera, Luimar Arismendi, Magda Albarracín, Marina Esayag, Sonia González de Páez, Virginia Largo, Yulene Velásquez
    Tenors: Daniel González, Jesús Hidalgo, John Martínez, José E. Castillo, José Russo, Juan de Sousa, Luis G. Cabrera, Miguel Castro, Otto Prieto, Pedro Sequera, Reinaldo Justo, Reynaldo Márquez, Said Barrios
    Basses / Baritones: Alejandro Figueroa, Andrés Ferrer, Carlos Rojas, Edwing Tenías, Javier Silva, José G. Manrique, Martín Camacho, Pablo Morales, Roberto Medina, Samuel Dávila, Vìctor Gonzále

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced and edited by Martin Sauer
    Sound engineer and mixing: Tobias Lehmann
    Assistant engineer recording: Ansgar Wempe
    Assistant engineer editing and mixing, mastering engineer: René Möller
    Recording facilities: Teldex Studio Berlin
    Recorded at the Barbican Centre, London, August 7-12, 2007
    This recording was made possible by support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program.
    Original sound design by Mark Grey
    Original Javanese dance by Eko Supriyanto, Astri Kusama and Rusini Sidi

    Libretto by John Adams and Peter Sellars, adapted from the Indian folktale and poetry in translations by A.K. Ramanujan
    Music by John Adams, published by Boosey & Hawkes

    Design by John Heiden and Nick Steinhardt, Smog Design, Inc.
    Photography by Ruth Walz and John Adams
    Cover image courtesy of Roli Books (New Delhi, India), from their book Erotic Literature of Ancient India by Sandhya Mulchandani

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

More From John Adams, Los Angeles Philharmonic