Lee & Grant: The Opera (Review/NYT)

For a pioneer of a movement called Minimalism, the composer Philip Glass has tended to think big in finding subjects for his operas. He has already taken on Einstein, Gandhi and Columbus. Now, in “Appomattox,” which had its premiere here on Friday night at the San Francisco Opera, Mr. Glass grapples with the bloody final weeks and complex aftermath of the Civil War. The work, with a libretto by the British playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, focuses on the strained, embittered yet admirably dignified peace talks between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Lincoln appears as a minor but pivotal character.

America is still coming to terms with the regional passions and racial prejudices that incited the Civil War. The story of Lee’s surrender in Appomattox Court House, a small town in Virginia, is a potentially rich subject for an opera. This earnest, sometimes alluring, frustratingly ineffective opera seems a missed opportunity.

Still, David Gockley, the general director of the San Francisco Opera, showed courage in presenting this work so early in his tenure with the company. He has generated citywide buzz over the premiere, and the house was packed on Friday.