Alternate Title the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down / Act V — the Rome Section
Premiere US Premiere
Production Language English
Country of Origin United States
Description With music by Philip Glass, the CIVIL warS—Rome was the fifth section in the six-part, multi-composer piece known as the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down, which was conceived by Robert Wilson as a daylong performance for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Olympics performance never materialized, and the overall piece remains unfinished. Rome, however, was presented in the 1986 Next Wave Festival. Collaging speeches and dialogues from various historical figures connected to war, the CIVIL warS—Rome is a non-narrative piece of musical theater that portrays the past and the future, the legendary and the actual, simultaneously.
Identifier 1986f.00411
