Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), written by the American composer Philip Glass in 1983. The libretto is by Philip Glass in association with Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell, and Jerome Robbins. According to the composer, this work is the culmination of a trilogy including his two other biographical operas, Einstein on the Beach (about Albert Einstein) and Satyagraha (about Mahatma Gandhi). These three people were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived: Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics.
The text, taken from original sources, is sung in the original languages, linked together with the commentary of a narrator in a modern language, such as English or German. Egyptian texts of the period are taken from a poem of Akhenaten himself, from the Book of the Dead, and from extracts of decrees and letters from the Amarna Period, the seventeen-year period of Akhenaten's rule. Other portions are in Akkadian and Biblical Hebrew. Akhnaten's Hymn to the Sun is sung in the language of the audience.
Performance history
Akhnaten was commissioned by Württembergische Staatstheater, Stuttgart and had its world premiere on March 24, 1984, at the Stuttgart State Theatre, under the German title Echnaton. Paul Esswood sang the title role, German director Achim Freyer staged the opera in an abstract style with highly ritualistic movements. The American premiere, directed by David Freeman, was on October 12, 1984, at the Houston Grand Opera, where Glass's opera The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 also premiered. The UK premiere, based on the American production, was on June 17, 1985, by English National Opera at the London Coliseum. This production was revived at the London Coliseum in March 1987.
The award-winning Polish premiere, directed by Henryk Baranowski, was on May 20, 2000, at the Grand Theatre in Łódź. The French premiere was on September 23, 2002, at Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg as a co-production with Boston Lyric Opera which had premiered the production in February 2002 A new co-production by English National Opera and LA Opera and in collaboration with Improbable directed by Phelim McDermott starring Anthony Roth Costanzo and Zachary James premiered at the London Coliseum on March 4, 2016, which won a 2017 Olivier Award, and at LA Opera on November 5, 2016. A revival of this production in London took place in March 2019 and played at the Metropolitan Opera in their 2019/2020 season, winning the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. The 2019 Met production was streamed online on June 20 and November 14, 2020, and February 12, 2021, and returned in 2022. A new production directed and choreographed by Nanine Linning premiered at Theater Heidelberg on June 6, 2014, another new production directed by Laura Scozzi premiered at Oper Bonn on March 11, 2018.
A November 2020 production at Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur was performed without an audience and screened online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This production was produced and choreographed by longtime Glass collaborator Lucinda Childs, who conducted rehearsals remotely. She also performed the speaking roles in the opera, which were pre-recorded and projected during the performance.
Roles
Music
The orchestra's size is about the size employed for early 19th-century opera: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (both doubling oboe d'amore), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 french horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion (3 players), celesta (doubling synthesizer), 12 violas, 8 celli, 6 double basses.
Since the Stuttgart State Opera house was being restored in 1984 and the orchestra pit of the at the Stuttgart State Theatre, where the premiere was to take place, was considerably smaller, Glass chose to completely leave out the violins (about 20), giving the orchestra a darker, sombre character, which fits the subject. Apart from this, this was Glass's most "conventional" opera orchestra until then (compared to Einstein on the Beach, written for the six-piece Philip Glass Ensemble, and Satyagraha, scored for woodwinds and strings only).
Synopsis
The opera is divided into three acts:
Act 1: Year 1 of Akhnaten's Reign in Thebes
Thebes, 1370 BC
Prelude, verse 1, verse 2, verse 3
Set in the key of A minor, the strings introduce a ground bass theme, with following variations. (A passacaglia). The scribe recites funeral texts from the pyramids. "Open are the double doors of the horizon; unlocked are its bolts."