'Book of Longing'
Book of Longing is the product of Philip Glass' collaboration with Canadian singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen. The book is based on Cohen's autobiographical collection of poems, sketches and drawings. It's not the first time that Glass sets poetry to music to produce a collection of songs.
Philip and Leonard met in Los Angeles almost a decade ago to discuss poetry and music. In the course of an afternoon that stretched into the evening, Cohen read Glass his then unpublished poetry out of loose pieces of paper. "I was attracted by the subject-matter, the universal themes of love, death, life, spirituality and family - the core of human experience. It was not only the poems' subject-matter that attracted me but also the clarity, simplicity and eloquence with which he presented them - all traits of a real poet," Glass said. After his stay of six years at the Mount Baldy Monastery, Cohen met Glass and resumed their talks where they had left them. By that time, Cohen's collection of loose pages had turned into a book. Glass asked permission to incorporate Cohen's drawings into his work. Cohen's artwork had never been displayed before. "In the last year Cohen has had a number of exhibitions. Now he has a second career as an artist," said Glass.
Cohen's drawings - self-portraits, landscapes and portraits of loved ones, mainly women - provide the sets for the 95-minute work. The singing parts delivered by a soprano, a mezzo, a tenor and a baritone are grouped into themes such as "Love", "Death" or "Ballads", which are interspersed with Cohen's recorded voice as he recites some of his smaller poems. "I wanted the evening to reflect the feeling that we have when we read poetry," said Glass. Music is performed by six musicians and Glass himself is on the keys under the baton of Grammy-awarded conductor Michael Riesman. When Glass asked Cohen to become involved in the composition, the Canadian troubadour said that he preferred to hear his poetry with Glass' music. "He made me feel very comfortable. He was very open and modest. He didn't present his work as the writings of a poet who didn't want to be interfered with," Glass said of their collaboration. "His modesty could be startling to the point of being unbelievable."
Asked on whether women play a central role in his work as is the case of Cohen, Glass replied indirectly. "While setting the poems into music I began to change the gender very freely. It wasn't a question of gender but of the power of intimacy - physical or spiritual," he said. "I had two great poets in my life: one was Cohen the other was Ginsberg. They had a different orientation sexually but it made no difference to me." Philip Glass' Book of Longing is on at the Badminton Theatre in Goudi on July 8-12 with Greek supratitles. Tickets range from 20 - 85 euros and are available from Virgin Megastores and www.ticketnet.gr. Credit card reservations can be made by calling: 210-884-0600.