Hydrogen Jukebox
opera by Philip Glass
Hydrogen Jukebox is a 1990 chamber opera featuring the music of Philip Glass and the work of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Its name is taken from a phrase coined by Ginsberg, from his 1955 poem Howl.
History
Of the project, Glass said:
In 1988...I happened to run into Allen Ginsberg at St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City and asked him if he would perform with me. We were in the poetry section, and he grabbed a book from the shelf and pointed out Wichita Vortex Sutra. The poem, written in 1966 and reflecting the anti-war mood of the times, seemed highly appropriate for the occasion. I composed a piano piece to accompany Allen's reading, which took place at the Schubert Theater on Broadway.
Allen and I so thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration that we soon began talking about expanding our performance into an evening-length music-theater work. It was right after the 1988 presidential election, and neither Bush nor Dukakis seemed to talk about anything that was going on. I remember saying to Allen, if these guys aren't going to talk about the issues then we should.
The public source identifies “Hydrogen Jukebox” as opera by Philip Glass. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hydrogen, Jukebox and opera.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3143733. The Library of Congress control number is no2018120096. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1990, 1955, 1988 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hydrogen Jukebox” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.