American composer-conductor John Adams leads the SSO in a concert of virtuosity, euphoria and good old fashioned fun. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

I made my debut at the Theatre du Chatelet last year conducting the Paris premiere of John Adams' first, and extremely complicated, opera Nixon in China. That, along with the Canadian Opera Company's production of Janacek's From the House of the Dead, was the most pleasurable new production I have conducted. It may have been a risk to programme this work but it paid off in spades as the French went literally wild for it and it received rave reviews in every paper and magazine worldwide. It led to the Director of the Chatelet, Jean-Luc Choplin, who is very daring in his programming, wanting to stretch the boundaries further by mounting Adams' third opera I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky, in which he asked me to return and conduct and premieres here on June 11. "Ceiling" is not your average "opera". It was written by Adams in 1995 and centres around the LA earthquake of 1994. Adams wanted to make a departure from the true operatic world of his first two operas and try his hand at the musicals from Gershwin, Bernstein etc. that he had grown up with. The result is a mix…

John Adams' masterpiece is done full justice, proving itself the late 20th century's great opera of ideas.

Five American composers respond to the tragedy of 9/11 in different ways.