Philip Glass : The Fall of the House of Usher

Commissioned by the American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA and the Kentucky Opera.


Work Notes

Opera in two acts.
Libretto (English) by Arthur Yorinks based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe.


Publisher

Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc.


Category

Opera and Music Theatre.


Year Composed

1988.


SYNOPSIS

Poe's famous horror story has fascinated poets, dramatists and composers for over a century. Poe hints at much, but states hardly anything at all. Is the story real, or is it a hallucination? What are the relationships between the narrator (William), his friend Roderick Usher, and Roderick's dying sister, Madeleine? Has she been buried alive, or is it a demon from hell who takes such spectacular revenge at the end? And is the vast house in which they live a living, malignant entity? Incest, homosexuality, murder and supernatural hang in the air, but, then again, such things may exist only in the imagination of the audience.