Review: 'Gospel According to the Other Mary' Emerges Reborn

LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Mark Swed

Kelly O'Connor, left, plays Mary 

CALIFORNIA---"The Gospel According to the Other Mary" is now another "Other Mary," the "Mary" we have been waiting for. John Adams' Eastertide combination of Passion and oratorio was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and given its premiere late last spring at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Impressive and stirring as it was, the work felt a masterpiece still in the making. "The Other Mary" came back Thursday night, revised by the composer and now staged by Peter Sellars, who also compiled the libretto. The work's great ambitions have been realized. But the essence of "The Other Mary" is rebirth. Adams' representation of it, whether in the most beautiful Passover scene in all of music or the delicate orchestral effects describing baby frogs bursting forth from suckholes, are musical reasons to embrace life. [link]