Appomattox

Appomattox is an opera in English based on the surrender ending the American Civil War, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by the playwright Christopher Hampton. The work had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera on October 5, 2007, with a cast that included Dwayne Croft as Robert E. Lee and Andrew Shore as Ulysses S. Grant. The revised version commissioned and premiered by the Washington National Opera on November 14, 2015, expanded the work from 90 minutes to 160 minutes and added roles for Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon Johnson. Roles Synopsis (2007 version) Time: The final days of the American Civil War. Prologue Julia Dent Grant sings of her fears for her husband, Ulysses, and her sense of foreboding. She is soon joined by Mary Anna Custis Lee and her daughter, Eleanor Agnes Lee, who worry for their way of life and hope the war will be over soon. Mary Todd Lincoln appears and asks her black servant Elizabeth Keckley to interpret a nightmare her husband, the President, has had. All sing of the sorrows of war and the hope that this will be the last, joined by a female chorus who carry pictures of their loved ones killed in the war.