The Juniper Tree

TULSA OPERA (1990)

THE JUNIPER TREE by Philip Glass & Robert Moran
Conductor: Richard Pitman
Cast: S. Meyers, D. Corman, E. Bullock, A. Nagore
Production Team: D. McLane (scenery), C. Zuber (clothes), T. Hensley (lighting)

“Imagine the cult films ‘Heathers’, ‘Harold and Maude’ and ‘Eating Raoul’ made into a musical. Tulsa Opera’s production of ‘The Juniper Tree’, a seventy-five minute, one-act chamber opera by Philip Glass and Robert Moran, has that sort of spirit about it. A capacity audience responded enthusiastically to Tulsa Opera’s first staging of a Glass opera.  A brilliant staging by artistic director Nicholas Muni captured the essence of the work, fully realizing its black humor, but not at the expense of its mystical element. His direction, with its nod to Alfred Hitchcock, was perfection. He never let the horror element of the story become campy or excessively graphic.”
– Ellis Widner, The Tulsa Tribune (January, 1990)

“Tulsa Opera ventured into unchartered waters this past weekend with a telling production of The Juniper Tree. The visual images, which ranged from pleasant to alarming, were carefully wrought, from children busy at play to the mother carrying the boy’s decapitated head and then sharpening her knife before carving him up. It makes for an interesting and entertaining way to spend an evening.”
– Rick Rogers, The Daily Oklahoman (January, 1990)