A Flowering Tree

About

Based on a homonymous Indian folk tale translated by A. K. Ramanujan, A Flowering Tree, with a libretto by stage director Peter Sellars and composer John Adams, narrates the rituals and ordeals undergone by a young couple who finally discover the transfiguring power of love. The two-act plot immediately evokes the mysticism and symbolism of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. The parallel is deliberate, since the work was commissioned by Vienna’s New Crowned Hope Festival as part of the celebrations for Mozart’s 250th birth anniversary. John Adams’s cellular, minimalist music is as delicate and magical as the power of the young Kumudha, who transforms herself into a tree and sells its blossoms to support her poor family.