# Appomattox (opera) > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Appomattox_(opera) > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Appomattox_(opera).md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox_(opera) > Source revision: 1336339164 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 2007 opera by Philip Glass Appomattox Opera by Philip Glass Glass in 2007 Librettist Christopher Hampton Language English Based on American Civil War Premiere 5 October 2007 (2007-10-05) San Francisco Opera ***Appomattox*** is an [opera](/source/Opera) [in English](/source/Opera_in_English) based on the surrender ending the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War), composed by [Philip Glass](/source/Philip_Glass), with a [libretto](/source/Libretto) by the playwright [Christopher Hampton](/source/Christopher_Hampton). The work had its world premiere at the [San Francisco Opera](/source/San_Francisco_Opera) on October 5, 2007, with a cast that included [Dwayne Croft](/source/Dwayne_Croft) as Robert E. Lee and [Andrew Shore](/source/Andrew_Shore) as Ulysses S. Grant.[1] The revised version commissioned and premiered by the [Washington National Opera](/source/Washington_National_Opera) on November 14, 2015, expanded the work from 90 minutes to 160 minutes[2] and added roles for [Martin Luther King Jr.](/source/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.) and [Lyndon Johnson](/source/Lyndon_Johnson).[3] ## Roles Role Voice type Premiere cast, October 5, 2007 (Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies) General Ulysses S. Grant baritone Andrew Shore General Robert E. Lee baritone Dwayne Croft Julia Dent Grant soprano Rhoslyn Jones Mary Anna Custis Lee soprano Elza van den Heever Agnes Lee soprano Ji Young Yang T. Morris Chester tenor Noah Stewart Abraham Lincoln bass-baritone Jeremy Galyon Mary Todd Lincoln soprano Heidi Melton [de] Elizabeth Keckley mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen Edgar Ray Killen bass-baritone Philip Skinner Edward Alexander tenor Chad Shelton John Rawlins baritone Jere Torkelsen General Howell Cobb bass John Minágro Ely S. Parker tenor Richard Walker Wilmer McLean baritone Torlef Borsting Four Civil Rights Marchers bass tenor soprano mezzo-soprano Frederick Matthews Antoine Garth Virginia Pluth Claudia Siefer An Old Man bass Frederick Matthews A Young Man tenor Antoine Garth Two Freed Slaves tenor bass Alexander Taite Anthony Russell A Brigadier tenor Kevin Courtemanche A Naval Officer bass William Pickersgill Voice of a Confederate Soldier baritone David Kekuewa A Captain bass William Pickersgill Chorus of Union and Confederate Soldiers, Citizens of Richmond and Appomattox, Slaves and Women ## Synopsis (2007 version) - Time: The final days of the American Civil War. ### Prologue [Julia Dent Grant](/source/Julia_Grant) sings of her fears for her husband, [Ulysses](/source/Ulysses_S._Grant), and her sense of foreboding. She is soon joined by [Mary Anna Custis Lee](/source/Mary_Anna_Custis_Lee) and her daughter, [Eleanor Agnes Lee](/source/Eleanor_Agnes_Lee), who worry for their way of life and hope the war will be over soon. [Mary Todd Lincoln](/source/Mary_Todd_Lincoln) appears and asks her black servant [Elizabeth Keckley](/source/Elizabeth_Keckley) to interpret a nightmare her husband, the President, has had. All sing of the sorrows of war and the hope that this will be the last, joined by a female chorus who carry pictures of their loved ones killed in the war. ### Act 1 *Scene 1: The days leading up to [Robert E. Lee](/source/Robert_E._Lee)'s surrender* While [Abraham Lincoln](/source/Abraham_Lincoln) and Ulysses S. Grant are aboard his floating headquarters on the Potomac, the President and Grant outline a plan to end the war and discuss the generous terms of surrender to be offered to Lee. Their wives arrive, Mrs. Lincoln voicing petty grievances, while Mrs. Grant is steadfast and calm. News of a successful retaking of a Confederate-held fort is brought in by Brigadier General [John Rawlins](/source/John_Aaron_Rawlins) and Colonel [Ely S. Parker](/source/Ely_S._Parker) of the day's battle; Grant then orders the final assault on Richmond. The scene ends with an actual Civil War campfire song. "[Tenting on the Old Camp Ground](/source/Tenting_on_the_Old_Camp_Ground)", sung by both armies as Grant and Robert E. Lee watch the sunset from their different offices. *Scene 2: the offices of General Lee* Mrs. Lee rejects her husband's advice to flee Richmond before the coming battle. Lee reflects on his reason for joining the Confederacy despite having been offered the leadership of the Union forces: his invincible loyalty to his home state of Virginia. General [Howell Cobb](/source/Howell_Cobb) arrives to give a report and confronts Lee over a bill he supports, one that will recruit slaves to fight for the Confederacy, a bill that Cobb believes undermines the entire revolution: If slaves make good soldiers, where does that leave the theory of slavery? Lee responds that his business is war, not theorizing. *Scene 3* Julia Grant, on the eve of the Union's attack on Richmond, reflects on the hard years of her husband's earlier life, including his business failures and alcoholism, but she recalls her mother's prophecy that he would rise to be the highest in the land. Now she worries about the horrible strain the long, bloody war has put on him. Grant assures her that the seemingly endless killing will soon be over. *Scene 4: the destruction of Richmond* A chorus of refugees flees and sings between bomb blasts. Mrs. Lee, remaining in her home, watches as the residents of Richmond flee and burn everything they own so as to not leave anything behind for the Union army. She and Agnes reflect on the horrors of war. A regiment of black Union soldiers enter and sing a marching tune, a variation of the [Marching Song of the First Arkansas](/source/Marching_Song_of_the_First_Arkansas). The black reporter [T. Morris Chester](/source/Thomas_Morris_Chester) writes a triumphant report to his newspaper while sitting in the speaker's chair of the House of Representatives. President Lincoln arrives and meets a throng of newly freed slaves. When one of them falls to her knees in front of him, he lifts her up telling her to kneel only to God. The slaves sing a hymn in praise of Lincoln. Mrs. Lee meets with Brig. General Rawlins, and expresses her outrage at having a black soldier as sentry in her occupied house. The sentry is to be replaced with a white soldier. *Scene 5: the exchange of letters between Lee and Grant after the taking of Richmond* Grant proposes that Lee surrender to avoid further bloodshed. Lee's initial response is equivocal, only inquiring as to the terms Grant might propose, and later suggesting they meet to discuss "peace" rather than "surrender". But when Lee receives news of his encircled army's failed breakout attempt, he realizes his options are disappearing. His aide, Brig. General [Edward Alexander](/source/Edward_Porter_Alexander), proposes a radical change of strategy: guerrilla warfare. Lee rejects the stratagem, saying that the soldiers would have to revert to robbing and plundering just to subsist. With no remaining alternative, Lee writes to Grant and asks for a meeting to discuss surrender. The full, crushing weight of his decision weighs upon him as he accepts the reality of defeat. ### Act 2 *The [Appomattox Court House](/source/Appomattox_Court_House_National_Historical_Park), Virginia* For the April 9, 1865, meeting to negotiate the surrender, the property is being prepared. Lee arrives impeccably dressed, while Grant in his haste appears in a battered, stained uniform. After polite reminiscence about their past acquaintance, Lee finally raises the subject of surrender. Grant proposes the broader terms and proceeds to write them down. Their discussion is interrupted by a sudden flash-forward to early morning, five days later. Mrs. Lincoln tells Elizabeth Keckley about another of the president's nightmares in which he witnessed his own funeral after being killed by an assassin. Keckley interprets the dream as the death of the war, not the President. Mrs. Lincoln tells of another dream, in which the president rode alone on a great ship to a vague, distant shore. This time, Keckley has no answer and rushes from the room. Mrs. Lincoln sees a vision of a funeral procession bearing a flag-draped coffin, and sees herself following it. She screams and collapses, and the action returns to the treaty signing. Grant proposes—to Lee's great relief—that all officers and men be allowed to return to their homes after handing over their arms. Lee requests a moment to look over the terms. The action flashes forward again, to 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana. T. Morris Chester enters and, obviously traumatized, reports the infamous [Colfax massacre](/source/Colfax_massacre), in which a hundred black militiamen were cut down by the [Ku Klux Klan](/source/Ku_Klux_Klan) and [White League](/source/White_League). Grant accedes to Lee's request that all his men, not just the officers, be allowed to keep their horses, so that they can return home to work their farms. The terms are set down in ink by Colonel Ely Parker, the only [Native American](/source/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States) present. The scene flashes forward again, this time to 1965. Four Civil Rights Marchers enter and, with the chorus, sing "The Ballad of Jimmie Lee", a folk song telling of the [murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson](/source/Murder_of_Jimmie_Lee_Jackson), and set out on the [Selma to Montgomery marches](/source/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches). The meeting concludes as Lee signs the letter accepting the terms, and the generals shake hands. After Lee bows and leaves, he approaches his troops and confirms the surrender; they can go home now, and if they are as good citizens as they were as soldiers, then he will be proud of them. As the generals depart, soldiers and civilians advance, and the McLean household is systematically ravaged by souvenir hunters. Rapacity and greed—harbingers of the future—violently intrude on the heels of a moment of historic reconciliation. The action flashes forward one last time, to the present day. [Edgar Ray Killen](/source/Edgar_Ray_Killen), a Klan member now in jail for his role in the [murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner](/source/Murders_of_Chaney%2C_Goodman%2C_and_Schwerner) in 1964, appears. Now an old man who uses a wheelchair, he sings in short, barking phrases of his pride in ordering the death of two Jewish civil rights workers and their black driver, and relives the murder in enthusiastic detail. His horrible recollection over, he disappears. ### Epilogue Julia Grant sorrowfully realizes that the War was not the last, as she has hoped, and that mankind will forever fight and kill. She leads the Women's Chorus in a wordless lament to the sorrow of war. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Kosman, Joshua, ["Philip Glass opera *Appomattox* both impressive and inconsistent"](https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/2007-10-08/entertainment/17263889_1_lee-s-surrender-civil-war-two-generals/3)[*[dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*], *[San Francisco Chronicle](/source/San_Francisco_Chronicle)*, 8 October 2007 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Appomattox – Philip Glass"](https://philipglass.com/compositions/appomattox/). Retrieved Jun 10, 2020. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["21ST-CENTURY MUSIC"](http://21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com/2016/). *21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com*. Retrieved Jun 10, 2020. ## External links - [San Francisco Opera's *Appomattox* site](https://web.archive.org/web/20071011043506/http://sfopera.com/opera.asp?o=252) v t e Philip Glass List of compositions Compositions Music in Twelve Parts Glassworks String Quartet No. 2 (Company) String Quartet No. 4 (Buczak) The Light Passages Itaipu Songs from Liquid Days Aguas da Amazonia Operas Einstein on the Beach Satyagraha The Photographer Akhnaten The Civil Wars The Juniper Tree The Fall of the House of Usher The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 1000 Airplanes on the Roof Hydrogen Jukebox The Voyage Orphée Les Enfants terribles La Belle et la Bête Monsters of Grace White Raven In the Penal Colony Galileo Galilei The Sound of a Voice Waiting for the Barbarians Appomattox Kepler The Perfect American The Trial Symphonies No. 1 (Low) No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 ("Heroes") No. 5 (Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya) No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) No. 7 (Toltec) No. 8 No. 9 No. 10 No. 11 No. 12 (Lodger) No. 13 (Truth in Our Time) No. 14 (Liechtenstein Suite) No. 15 (Lincoln) Concertos Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tirol) Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) Harpsichord Concerto Violin Concerto (withdrawn) Violin Concerto No. 1 Violin Concerto No. 2 (American Four Seasons) Cello Concerto No. 1 Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra Film scores Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) Dracula (1999) The Hours (2002) Going Upriver (2004) Roving Mars (2006) Notes on a Scandal (2007) Cassandra's Dream (2007) Fantastic Four (2015) Jane (2017) Related articles Philip Glass Ensemble Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts Minimal music Robert Wilson Dennis Russell Davies David Henry Hwang Godfrey Reggio Errol Morris La Monte Young Steve Reich Terry Riley Kronos Quartet Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread The Manson Family: An Opera Category v t e Christopher Hampton Films written and directed Carrington (1995) The Secret Agent (1996) Imagining Argentina (2003) Films written only A Doll's House (1973) Tales from the Vienna Woods (1979) The Honorary Consul (1983) The Good Father (1985) The Wolf at the Door (1986) Hotel du Lac (1986) Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Total Eclipse (1995) Mary Reilly (1996) The Quiet American (2002) Atonement (2007) Chéri (2009) A Dangerous Method (2011) The Thirteenth Tale (2013) Adoration (2013) Ali and Nino (2016) The Father (2020) The Son (2022) TV series created The History Man (1981) The Ginger Tree (1989) The Singapore Grip (2020) Plays The Philanthropist Savages Treats Tales from Hollywood Les Liaisons Dangereuses Musical productions Sunset Boulevard Dracula, the Musical Waiting for the Barbarians Appomattox The Trial Rebecca Stephen Ward Authority control databases International VIAF Other MusicBrainz work BRAHMS --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Appomattox (opera)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox_(opera)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox_(opera)?action=history)). 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