Einstein on the Beach

PRODUCTION

Editorial production for Einstein on the Beach, a book tracing the creation of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s landmark opera. Matthew Shattuck co-edited the book with Noah Khoshbin and Grégoire Robinne.

THE BOOK

Einstein on the Beach, an opera in four acts, launched the international careers of composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson. Its 1976 premiere at the Festival d’Avignon was a shock to the musical world. Nearly four decades later, and twenty years after its last revival, the opera was remounted for an international tour that opened in Montpellier in the spring of 2012.

The book focuses on the opera’s creation through Wilson’s sketchbooks and storyboards, showing how it was first imagined and gradually took the shape we know today. A facsimile of an original text Glass wrote at the time describes the score and its link to Wilson’s staging. Fourteen photographs from the opera’s four productions, in 1976, 1984, 1992, and 2012, show the full arc of the collaboration. The book also includes previously unpublished documents and a preface by Wilson.

LIMITED EDITION

Fifty signed copies: 40 numbered 1 to 40, and 10 artist’s proofs numbered I to X. Each comes in a grey cardboard box with a portrait of Philip Glass enhanced by Robert Wilson and a numbered, signed certificate of authenticity.

DETAILS

Editors: Matthew Shattuck, Noah Khoshbin, Grégoire Robinne
Preface: Robert Wilson
Hardcover, 11.4 x 8.2 in, 160 pages
82 color and 14 black-and-white reproductions
ISBN: 9791090490048