Clearly something very odd happened to this first release of John Adams' 2006 stage work in the course of manufacturing this two-disc set. The packaging shows every sign of being thrown together in haste: the libretto in the booklet that accompanies the set omits almost all of the second act, but prints the first twice. Adams specifically calls A Flowering Tree an "opera", but, with its self-contained arias and very gentle narrative flow, this retelling of a 2,000-year-old Indian folktale about a girl who transforms herself into a tree to provide flowers that her mother and sisters can sell, often seems more of a hybrid piece, like his quasi-oratorio El Niño. Whatever its categorisation, the work is too long and one-paced, though it undoubtedly contains some ravishingly beautiful orchestral music, as well as solo vocal and choral writing of genuine expressive power, which this performance, with Jessica Rivera, Russell Thomas and Eric Owens as the protagonists and the wonderful young singers of the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, realises tellingly.
Source: guardian.co.uk
