Philip Glass’s landmark opera Einstein on the Beach is receiving an expanded 50th-anniversary celebration built around concert performances and a new fully staged production.
The Philip Glass Ensemble will perform the music in anniversary concerts, including a three-night engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from November 19 through November 21, 2026.
The anniversary plans also include a major experiential production scheduled to premiere in June 2027 at Aviva Studios in Manchester. The project brings together English National Opera, Factory International, Park Avenue Armory and Improbable, with Phelim McDermott directing.
A work that changed modern opera
Created by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, Einstein on the Beach first appeared in 1976. Its structure rejected a conventional narrative and combined repetitive music, movement, spoken numbers, imagery and extended duration.
The work became one of the defining pieces of musical minimalism and a major influence on contemporary opera and theater.
Concert performances and a new staging
The anniversary program allows the Philip Glass Ensemble to bring the score back to audiences in concert form while the larger 2027 production develops a new staged interpretation.
