FULL The Juniper Tree (Philip Glass & Robert Moran) Northridge CA 2026 CSUN Opera

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: The Juniper Tree   
• Composer: Glass Philip, Robert Moran  
• Libretto: Arthur Yorinks    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Shigemi Matsumoto Recital Hall, Northridge, California, Department of Music and California State University CSUN  
• Recorded: April 16-19, 2026
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: see below
• Conductor: Mercedes Juan Musotto  
• Orchestra: CSUN opera  
• Choreographer: Paula Thomson  
• Stage Director: Maurice Godin  
• Costume Designer: Mary Lynn Daehlin, Zoe Monge  
• Lighting Designer: Kira Daehlin  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Maurice Godin  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Principal Cast
  The Husband: Patrick Bittner (16th/18th) / Leviticus Valko (17th/19th)
  The Wife: Samantha Rosenberg (16th/18th) / Jessica Liu (17th/19th)
  The Son / The Juniper Bird: Sophia Paz (16th/18th) / Mia Karnakis (17th/19th)
  The Stepmother: Fantasia Guerra-Rivera (16th/18th) / Kristin McGinnis (17th/19th)
  The Daughter: Gabrielle Pilar Johnson (16th/18th) / Isabella Catalano (17th/19th)
  The Goldsmith: Gabe Baker (Both Casts)
  The Cobbler: George Froehlig (16th/18th) / Artur Tarveryan (17th/19th)
  The Miller: Jonathan Hernandez (16th/18th) / Colin Schmaltz (17th/19th)
  The Mama Bird: Paulette Sta. Maria (16th/18th) / Amber Keys (17th/19th)

  The Juniper Tree is an opera co-composed by Philip Glass and Robert Moran in 1985 to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

  The opera is in two acts and is scored for two baritones, bass, mezzo-soprano, four sopranos, tenor, mixed chorus, children’s voices and chamber orchestra. Each composer wrote alternating scenes and utilized each other’s themes to provide structural unity. Glass retained ownership of the opera, and did not allow for the “live” recording of the premiere (with Jayne West and Sanford Sylvan) to be released until 2009. Until then, Moran encouraged his fans to distribute bootleg copies so that people could hear it.

  Synopsis
  The Grimm fairy tale tells of a wicked stepmother who murders her stepson, fearing that he reminds her husband of his late wife and serves him up in a stew to his hungry, unsuspecting father. The boy’s sister buries her brother’s bones under a juniper tree where their mother is buried, and the child’s spirit returns as a singing bird who wreaks vengeance on the evil stepmother (dropping a millstone on her) before being restored to life in the bosom of his family.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

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