{"product_id":"history-is-our-mother-three-libretti-isbn-9781681370644","title":"History is Our Mother: Three Libretti","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first appearance of Alice Goodman's two internationally-renowned and controversial libretti, alongside one of her masterful translations.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn NYRB Classics Original\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Klinghoffer\u003c\/i\u003e played a crucial role in bringing opera back to life as a contemporary  art form, and they have been popular—and, in the case of \u003ci\u003eKlinghoffer\u003c\/i\u003e,  highly controversial—ever since they were first staged by the director  Peter Sellars in the eighties and nineties. Both operas were conceived  from the start as collaborations between composer and writer, and their  power is due as much to the dazzlingly constructed and deeply felt  libretti of the poet Alice Goodman as they are to John Adams’s music. \u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e is a story, at once heroic, comic, and unnerving, of men and women  making history and of their different conceptions of what history is and  what it means to makes it. \u003ci\u003eKlinghoffer\u003c\/i\u003e, by contrast, has at its center the tragedy of an innocent man condemned at the cost of his life to play a part in history. \u003ci\u003eHistory Is Our Mother\u003c\/i\u003e, which takes its title from a line sung by the title character in \u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e,  brings Goodman’s two libretti together for the first time in book form.  Included alongside Goodman’s no less inspired translation of Emanuel Schikaneder’s famous libretto to \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Flute\u003c\/i\u003e, these vivid dramas  of character and searching meditations on fate are here revealed as  among the most original, ambitious, and accomplished poetic achievements  of our time.\u003ci\u003e\"Nixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Klinghoffer\u003c\/i\u003e are works of wit and judgement exercised in the contexts of political  gravity which few poets writing English these days face on such a  scale.... \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Flute\u003c\/i\u003e sparkles and rings true as no text for this music, not even Auden's, has managed to do.\" —Eric Griffiths, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The libretto [for \u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e], by Alice Goodman, offered   moments of wry humor and poignancy, dealing in a mock-mythic style with   President Nixon’s peacemaking trip to China in 1972.\" —Donal Henahan, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The Death of Klinghoffer\u003c\/i\u003e [is a] raw, penetrating, strangely  mystical work...Ms. Goodman’s  poetic libretto, though often enigmatic,  is powerfully so. Parts of the  text remind me of Elizabeth Bishop’s  poems, which can seem profound  and full of richly detailed imagery, even  when the meaning is obscure.\"  —Anthony Tommasini, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Goodman’s  insightful and lyrical libretto probed into the deep  meaning of world  events and, most important of all, revealed the  tantalizing—and  tormented—inner workings of the men and women behind  them.\" —Mark Swed,  \u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e is] a  mythical and elusive depiction of  Nixon’s 1972 trip to Beijing to meet  with his erstwhile adversary Mao  Zedong...Alice Goodman’s  gnomic...libretto [is] a compilation of shadowy  maxims and splendidly  calculated banalities.\" —Joshua Kosman, \u003ci\u003eSFGate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Among the glories of Goodman’s libretto [for \u003ci\u003eNixon in China\u003c\/i\u003e]   is the dream-like poetic quality with which she imbues all the   characters, ennobling them while maintaining their particular visions   and quirks. Her text is a meditation on history, politics and culture,   and at the same time a keen dramatization of individuals caught up in a   momentous event.\" —Mike Silverman, \u003ci\u003eAssociated Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlice Goodman\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, librettist, and Anglican priest. She serves as a  rector for several parishes in Cambridgeshire, England.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eJames Williams\u003c\/b\u003e teaches English and American literature at the University of York.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305086472421,"sku":"NP9781681370644","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681370644.jpg?v=1767729095","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/history-is-our-mother-three-libretti-isbn-9781681370644","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}