The Photographer

Chamber opera by Philip Glass

The Photographer is a three part mixed media performance accompanied by music (also sometimes referred to as a chamber opera) by composer Philip Glass. The libretto is based on the life and homicide trial of 19th century English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Commissioned by the Holland Festival, the opera was first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

Eadweard Muybridge was an English born photographer who relocated to the American West and was an early pioneer in photographic technology. He photographed well known landscapes of Yosemite that pushed the aesthetic and technological boundaries of the medium. His early photographic motion studies conducted in association with Leland Stanford led to the earliest moving photographic images. In 1874, Muybridge murdered Major Harry Larkyns (referred to as 'Colonel Harry Larkyns' in this work), whom he suspected of being his wife's lover, and was acquitted by a jury against the instructions of the judge on the ground of justifiable homicide. His trial is well known because his defense argued that a head injury incurred in a stagecoach accident altered his personality, which modern neuroscientists believe could have been caused by certain types of brain damage. The text included in Glass' work is based on words drawn from the transcripts of the trial and Muybridge's actual letters to his wife. The second act features a slideshow of Muybridge's photographs. While based on historical events in Muybridge's life, the work also comments on aspects of Muybridge's work, melding both themes.

The form of this work consists of three acts: a play with incidental music, a concert accompanying a slideshow of Muybridge's work, and a dance with musical accompaniment. In total, the piece lasts about 90 minutes.

Act 1 is a play that includes three incidental pieces of music that fit into the play. The play recounts Muybridge's murder of Major Harry Larkyns and the trial, with an irreverent tone. The incidental piece "A Gentleman's Honor", includes words drawn from the actual trial transcript, commentary, and Muybridge's letters. It draws on the incident in which Flora sent Larkyns a portrait of Muybridge's son Florado, seeming to imply that Larkyns could be the father ('Whose baby is this'), and draws on the commentary of spectators ('All that white hair and a long white beard'), as well as referencing Muybridge's carriage accident and his later motion studies ('Horses in the air '). The phrases 'Artificial moonlight' and 'Artificial sky' may refer to techniques used by Muybridge in his landscape technology (overlaying clouds onto his images). Glass notes that he originally conceived the text of A Gentleman's Honor as based on a poem by Muybridge called "Circles", but Glass reconsidered and asked David Byrne to use material from the trial itself, as well as Muybridge's letters.

Act 2 is a violin solo, or "concert", that either features a figure representing Muybridge in the darkroom in the background or a slideshow of images by Muybridge. Critics have compared the see saw sounds of the solo violin to a hoe down or "early American" sound, although Glass claims this analogy was not necessarily intentional. Glass's distinctive minimalist musical style complements the theme of the opera, since the ideas of repetitive sounds and small changes seem to mirror Muybridge's techniques in his famous motion studies. Despite Muybridge's achievements and this relationship to the composer's work, the work does not necessarily treat the subject of Muybridge's trial reverently, and the dance appears to use the subject as an opportunity to comment on the contradictory mores of Muybridge's own time. Glass has stated that he intended to reflect the idea of a "Victorian melodrama" in his music.