Cohen comments on new ROM

DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR

The ROM Crystal, or "iceberg" as Leonard Cohen describes it.

Leonard Cohen referred to the Daniel Libeskind-designed addition to the ROM as an iceberg that collided with a building Saturday afternoon, but he meant it in the nicest possible way.

Cohen was engaged in an erudite, polite, funny and self-effacing conversation with composer Philip Glass before a packed house at the Winter Garden Theatre in the first Luminato Festival "Illuminations" session, designed to shed light on festival events from the people involved.

Cohen and Glass were discussing the development of Book of Longing, which puts Glass's music together with Cohen's poetry and images. It had its world premiere at Luminato the night before and will travel to cities around the world after the festival. A CD and DVD are possible some time in the future, Glass revealed.

Cohen said maybe the marriage of his words and Glass's music, in theory, shouldn't work, the same way a bumble bee, according to engineering principles, shouldn't be able to fly. But, he said, Glass's work defies logic and the words and music both come together beautifully, "like that iceberg that hit the museum down the street."

Our own Greg Quill thought differently; read his review here.

-Deputy Entertainment Editor Joe Fox