Review: Turning 90, Philip Glass gets revelatory tributes that show his work in new light

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Philip Glass doesn’t turn 90 until the end of January.But the Glass year is already officially underway with two curiously enlightening projects this month.

Paris Opera has mounted a shocking new “noir” production of Glass’ luminous “Satyagraha” that the company is now streaming (after a short delay thanks to a typical French strike) until May 24.It features a startling performance by Anthony Roth Costanzo that significantly elevates the American countertenor to the small ranks of one of the world’s most important singers.

Meanwhile, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures commissioned “Philip Glass and the Poets,” which was devoted to an overlooked but revealing aspect of what makes Glass great: his attachment to a repetitive, wandering musical style that may not seem to go anywhere but that creates an atmosphere where anything and everything can happen..Its premiere was Sunday night at Campbell Hall featuring readings by performance artist Taylor Mac, in flamboyant drag, and unflustered dancer/choreographer Lucinda Childs.In both cases, these events focus on the operation of music and text.

Glass has written a significant quantity of pure music for a vast range of instrumental forces from multiple genres and cultures.He may well hold a record for the breadth of his collaborations.

Robert Wilson, Woody Allen, David Bowie, Ravi Shankar, Fody Musa Suso, Allen Ginsberg, Gustavo Dudamel, Jerome Robbins, Gidon Kremer, Martin Scorsese, Brian Eno, David Henry Hwang, Leonard Cohen, the Dalai Lama — the list goes on and on and on.With Ginsberg, Glass acted as the straight man.He would begin a performance with Glass at the piano, bestowing an ingratiating quality of quiet pleasure on Ginsberg’s flowery imagery.

Gradually Ginsberg’s text and manner would rise to one of arresting spiritual and sexual ecstasy, while Glass remained ever cool.The effect was not, how...