The Gospel According to the Other Mary

The Gospel According to the Other Mary is an opera-oratorio by the American composer John Adams. The world premiere took place on May 31, 2012, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic^[1] who also premiered the staged version on March 7, 2013, at the same venue.^[2]

The Gospel According to the Other Mary
Opera-oratorio by John Adams
Librettist	Peter Sellars
Premiere	May 31, 2012 (2012-05-31) Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles

The work focuses on the final few weeks of the life of Jesus, including his passion, from the point of view of "the other Mary", Mary of Bethany (sometimes mis-identified as Mary Magdalene), her sister Martha, and her brother, Lazarus.^[1][2] The libretto by Peter Sellars draws its texts from the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible and from Rosario Castellanos, Rubén Darío, Dorothy Day, Louise Erdrich, Hildegard von Bingen, June Jordan, and Primo Levi.

The Gospel According to the Other Mary was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music.^[3]

Roles

Roles, voice types, and premiere cast

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 31 May 2012 Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel
Mary	mezzo-soprano	Kelley O'Connor
Martha, her sister	contralto	Tamara Mumford
Lazarus, their brother	tenor	Russell Thomas
	3 countertenors	Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings, Nathan Medley
SATB choir (at least 40 voices)

Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following orchestra:^[2][4]

Woodwinds Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes English horn 2 B-flat clarinets Bass clarinet 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon

Brass 4 Horns 2 Trumpets 2 Trombones

Percussion (3 players) Snare drum Pedal bass drum Very low bass drum Timbale Low tom-tom Tuned gongs Chimes Almglocken Glockenspiel 3 tam-tams (large, medium, and small)

Plucked and struck strings Cimbalom Bass guitar Piano Harp Strings Violin I, II Violas Cellos Double basses

Structure

The opera-oratorio is in two acts, broken down into the following scenes:^[4]

Act 1 Scene 1 (Jail / House of Hospitality) Scene 2 (Mary) Chorus: En un día de amor yo bajé hasta la tierra[5] Scene 3 (Lazarus) Chorus: Drop down, ye heavens Scene 4 (Supper at Bethany) Scene 5 (Passover)

Act 2 Chorus: Who rips his flesh down the seams Scene 1 (Police Raid) Scene 2 (Arrest of the Women) Scene 3 (Golgotha) Scene 4 (Night) Scene 5 (Burial / Spring) Chorus: It is spring Scene 6 (Earthquake and Recognition Scene)

Critical reception

The Gospel According to the Other Mary has received widespread praise, having been variously described as "powerfully prescient",^[6] "uncommonly provocative",^[7] and "immensely powerful".^[8] Andrew Clements of The Guardian called the score "easily the finest thing [Adams] has composed in more than two decades".^[8] Adam's orchestration in particular (notably the use of the cimbalom) has also been hailed as inventive and effective.^[1][9][10] The Passover Aria is often celebrated by critics, and has been described by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times as "stunning exquisiteness".^[1][6][10]

However, such praise has not been universal. Comparing the piece to Adams' opera El Niño, Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times called The Gospel According to the Other Mary "more crowded and less coherent",^[1] and the piece has been described as having dramaturgical flaws by multiple critics.^[1][8][9]

See also

• Gospel of Mary
• New Testament people named Mary