This Naxos recording of John Adams’s ‘song play’, set to a remarkably imaginative libretto by June Jordan, is a complete revelation, showing it to be an undoubted masterpiece, an intriguing amalgam of opera and musical, drawing on all kinds of sources, but in the main extending the style of musical pioneered by Bernstein. It is a true crossover work, and its basic parlando style, laced with set pieces, is all Adam’s own. The work is inspired by the 1994 Californian earthquake. The piece centres on seven everyday characters, all young people from Los Angeles, of varying social and ethnic backgrounds and Adams’s set numbers bring outstanding lyrical inspirations.