It is difficult to categorise John Adams’s I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky. Initially it seems easier to define it as what it is not. For example it is not an opera. To be sure, it consists exclusively of music. There are, however, no through-composed scenes, no dramatic arch-forms in music, such as distinguish operas, as with the two John Adams operas Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. We are not here concerned with that serious music expected in an opera, but rather with a varied series of popular styles: gospel follows pop, jazz ballad to rock number, Whitney Houston to Supertramp. There is no orchestra playing, but instead just a rock band of clarinet, saxophone, keyboards, guitar, bass and percussion.

Is this then a musical? Perhaps in a certain sense, but certainly not as the term is generally understood. Neither in the choice of material nor in form is it to be compared with My Fair Lady or Starlight Express, lacking the typical dialogue and the obligatory dance numbers. The social criticism of the material recalls rather the engaged political theatre of a Bertold Brecht that also contains songs.

The novelty and individuality of this song play is, rather, the abandonment of explanatory connecting dialogue, recitative, or anything like that: as in a songcycle - or a pop album - 23 songs in five-minute format follow one another. In its course, however, it tells a story, forms a theatre piece, a play. Although the piece takes over formal elements from all current musictheatre genres, the result is quite original.