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His extreme social, artistic and theological innovations were a shock to society. In Act 3, we see the family life of Akhnaten, his queen, Nefertiti, and their six daughters.Īkhnaten’s reign lasted only 17 years. Then a ceremonial dance conveys the building of a new capital.
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First, the funeral of Akhnaten’s father, Amenhotep III, the coronation of the new Pharaoh, the destruction of the old pantheistic temples and their replacement with the worship of a single sun god. The three acts are scenes from ancient Egypt. The libretto is a collaboration of historical documents read by a narrator, the Scribe, and sung texts in biblical Hebrew and Babylonian Akkadian taken from such sources as the “Egyptian Book of the Dead” and Akhnaten’s own writings. McDermott treats “Akhnaten” as a quirky ritual, which it somewhat is. One of the founders of Improbable, the off-key British theater company, he and Improbable designer Julian Crouch were responsible for an earlier, exceptional English National Opera production of “Satyagraha” that went to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. That is not to say that “Akhnaten” isn’t a weird opera or that Phelim McDermott isn’t a wacky director. This co-production with English National Opera, where it was given in the spring, happens to be a mixed success, but not so mixed as to lend doubt that an important American opera is finally here to stay.
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Opera, we have the first major American “Akhnaten” in more than quarter-century. Five years later, Long Beach Opera mounted a tantalizing but uneven production. “Akhnaten” wasn’t rediscovered until John Adams, like a musical archaeologist unearthing ancient Egyptian relics, conducted excerpts from the score as the climax to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s first Minimalist Jukebox festival a decade ago. The score was a major musical and theatrical step for Glass toward adapting Minimalism for opera conventions, but he was still thought too avant-garde for American companies.
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But the first production to reach the U.S., at Houston Opera and New York City Opera that same year, was unimaginative. The 1984 premiere at Stuttgart Opera in a visually memorable production by Achim Freyer led to an excellent recording (still the only one). Glass’ third opera (of some 25 so far) and the last in his trilogy of “Portrait” operas (begun with “Einstein on the Beach” and followed by “Satyagraha,” about Gandhi) has suffered a curious neglect in the U.S. Los Angeles Opera’s eye-popping new production, which opened Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, cooperates with its own exuberant speculation, along with some awfully good circus juggling.įirst of all, the mere act of programming “Akhnaten” in America is significant. Glass’ opera cooperates by presenting the Pharaoh as a tragic, spiritual visionary. The historical Pharaoh invites speculation. We witness from afar archaeology’s murky record: a radical, megalomaniacal Pharaoh depicted with an elongated head, protuberant breasts and swollen stomach, who overthrew Egyptian religion and tradition, proposing monotheism as a monument to himself and building a new capital as another monument to himself. But whereas Verdi relies on the great 19th century Italian opera themes of forbidden love and the like to make the exotic realm of Pharaohs and gods knowable, Glass operates on the late 20th century perspective of history as unknowable. Verdi and Glass both re-imagined an ancient Egypt suited to the composers’ own times. Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” is the un-“Aida.”