John Adams: Opera Choruses - Volume 3

Boosey & Hawkes is pleased to present a three-volume collection of John Adams's choruses from his world-renowned operas, edited by conductor Grant Gershon, featuring choral selections from six iconic stage works with newly arranged piano accompaniment by Chitose Okashiro.

Adams's stage works are repertory staples at opera houses across the world, celebrated for their exceptional craft, emotional resonance, and urgently relevant subject matter. The LA Times described the role of Adams's choruses in his operas as a powerful narrative and emotional driver: “They are the weather. They are memories. They are dreams. They are fears. They are history. They are the governors of emotion.”

Volume 3 features all seven choruses from Adams's second opera The Death of Klinghoffer, a fictionalized account of the infamous Achille Lauro incident of 1985, in which Palestinian terrorists boarded an Italian cruise ship, held its passengers and crew hostage, and killed an elderly Jewish, wheelchair-bound American named Leon Klinghoffer. Influenced by the Bach Passions, the work crosses boundaries between opera and oratorio, with a series of choruses that run through the opera and range from powerful (“Night Chorus”) to ethereal (“Ocean Chorus”) to tender (“Day Chorus”).

The Klinghoffer choruses are also available in a published collection for chorus and orchestra, for concert presentations.