condition (records/box): NM / NM

With original innersleeves and booklet.

The first opera in Glass's portrait trilogy, premiered at Avignon on 25 July 1976 and brought to the Metropolitan Opera that November in a self-funded one-night co-presentation that left Glass and Robert Wilson about $90,000 in debt. Four and a half hours, no plot, no intermission. Five "Knee Plays" frame four image-sequences (train, trial, dance, spaceship). Texts by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs.

Recorded June 1978 at Big Apple Recording Studios, conducted by Michael Riesman, shortened to 165 minutes to fit four LPs. Iris Hiskey sings soprano; Jon Gibson, Richard Landry and Richard Peck anchor the Ensemble; Childs and Sheryl Sutton speak. Originally on Tomato Records (TOM-4-2901, 1979), licensed to CBS Masterworks in 1984. Dutch pressing. 24-page 12"x12" libretto with Edwin Denby essay.