John Adams - I Was Looking at the Ceiling & Then I Saw the Sky (1998)

Composer's Notes
I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky was a quote from a survivor of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, a catastrophe that devastated a large part of the northern Los Angeles area. The librettist June Jordan found this phrase in the Los Angeles Times and offered it to me as the title for what I wanted to be a Broadway-style show. After composing two grand operas, “Nixon in China” and “The Death of Klinghoffer,” I’d realized that the only truly indigenous form of American musical thater was what we call, for lack of a more precise term, the “musical.” My first appearance onstage as a child was in a small-town production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific”, with my mother acting the role of Bloody Mary. In my youth I knew all the famous American shows more or less by heart, and my later discovery of “West Side Story” convinced me that this particular theatrical form could actually attain the level of genuine art. Another American icon, Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”, also stood as a model although as a theaterical entity it had serious formal problems.


John Adams
I Was Looking at the Ceiling & Then I Saw the Sky
A song play in two acts

Music by John Adams
Libretto by June Jordan
Directed by Peter Sellars

1. Ensemble - I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky 8:05
2. A Sermon on Romance 3:11
3. Consuelo's Dream 4:55
4. Mike's Song about Arresting a Particular Individual 3:22
5. Tiffany's Solo 4:52
6. Song About The On-Site Altercation 2:51
7. Song About The Bad Boys And The News 6:20
8. Your Honor My Client He's A Young Black Man 5:40
9. Leila's song: Alone (Again or at Last) 4:17
10. Three Weeks and I'm Still Outta My Mind 5:12
11. Crushed by the Rock I Been Standing On 4:37
12. Dewain's Song of Liberation and Surprise 5:29
13. Este Pais/This Country 4:27
14. One Last Look at the Angel in your Eyes 2:00
15. Finale

Audra McDonald, Soprano (Consuelo)
Richard Muenz, Baritone (Mike)
Marin Mazzie, Soprano (Tiffany)
Michael McElroy, Voice (Dewain)
Welly Yang, Voice (Rick)
Angela Teek, Voice (Leila)
Darius De Haas, Voice (David)

Seppo Kantonen, Piano
Marja Mutru, Keyboard
Markku Tabell, Keyboard
Janne Murto, Saxophone
Kari Tenkanen, Clarinet
Hannu Rantanen, Electric Double Bass
Jari Nieminen, Guitar
Jari-Pekka Karvonen, Percussion
John Adams, Conductor

Nonesuch 79473-2