Adams shakes things up

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1994, at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Coast time, an earthquake struck Southern California. It was located some 20 miles west-northwest of Los Angeles and centered 1 mile south-southwest of Northridge. It registered 6.7 on the Richter scale and caused 44 billion dollars in damage.

The event also generated a rock musical entitled “I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky,” which premiered in Berkeley, California, the following year. This was a collaboration among the composer, John Adams, stage director, Peter Sellars, and librettist, June Jordan.

Adams spent about a year working on this, his third stage work, which was billed as an “earthquake romance.” The story, told in twenty-five pop songs accompanied by an eight-piece rock band, is both a romantic comedy and a social satire centered on the lives of seven young Americans of varied ethnicities, all living in Los Angeles at the moment of the Northridge earthquake.

The original production played in an extended five-month tour of Montreal, New York, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Paris, and Hamburg, and a Nonesuch compact disc recording followed, featuring performances by some rising stars of the American music theater, including Audra MacDonald.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Adams (b. 1947) I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky Audra MacDonald, soprano; ensemble; John Adams, cond. Nonesuch 79473

On This Day

Births

• 1706 - American statesman, composer of string quartets, publisher and inventor of the glass harmonica Benjamin Franklin, in Boston (Gregorian date: Jan. 28);

• 1712 - English composer John Stanley (Gregorian date: Jan. 28);

• 1734 - Belgian composer François-Joseph Gossec, in Vergnies;

• 1907 - Dutch composer Henk Badings, in Bandung, Java;

• 1927 - American composer Donald Erb, in Youngstown, Ohio;

• 1934 - Canadian-born American composer, conductor and clarinetist Sydney Hodkinson, in Winnipeg, Manitoba;

Deaths

• 1738 - French composer and organist Jean François Dandrieu, age c. 56, in Paris;

• 1750 - Italian composer Tomaso Albinoni, age 78, in Venice;

• 1826 - Spanish composer Juan Crisostomo Arriaga, age 19, in Paris;

• 1869 - Russian composer Alexander Dargomizhsky, age 55, in St. Peterburg (Julian date: Jan. 5);

• 1969 - Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz, age 55, in Warsaw;

Premieres

• 1880 - Franck: Piano Quintet in f, in Paris, by the Marsick Quartet, with Camille Saints-Saëns at the piano;

• 1901 - Mascagni: opera "Le Maschere" (The Masks), simultaneously in 6 cities;

• 1944 - Copland: Violin Sonata, at Times Hall in New York, by violinist Ruth Posselt with the composer at the piano;

• 1991 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Oboe Concerto, by soloist John Mack, with the Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting;

Others

• 1745 - Handel publishes a letter in the London ":Daily Advertiser" offering to return three-fourths money to the subscribers to his current series of concerts, then in progress, suggesting that his attempts to please the public have proved ineffectual; The letter prompts a flurry of support, and Handel resumes the concerts a week later; In all, 16 out of the promised 24 concerts would take place; The series closed on April 23, 1745, with a revival performance of ":Messiah." (Gregorian dates: Jan. 28 and May 4, respectively);

• 1919 - Polish composer and pianist Ignaz Jan Paderewski becomes premiere of Poland.