Yes! ENO re-stages Akhnaten in 2016
😀 😀 😀 YES! Score! Rock on ENO etc. I’m very curious what they will do with it because I have my own staging ideas. Here’s an opera ripe for arcane symbolism. I hope it’s wildly out there, by which I mean nothing like this.
19/05/15 edit: general sale starts on 27/05/15.
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Posted on April 23, 2015, in 20th century, contemporary operas, ENO and tagged akhnaten, eno, philip glass. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
opera, innit? 
Akkadian with no surtitles, that’s sooo hardcore
ENO yet not in English! What’s the world coming to?! A whole year to brush up on Akkadian laudative adjectives 😉
lol Just clicked through to the clip. I wouldn’t expect ENO to be working quite at this level. We should probably note this is a student performance, so there’s a certain level of High School Musical theatrics involved. I think that’s why IU/Jacobs School productions tend to be not very adventurous — the casts are generally still learning their stagecraft. (On the other hand, I’ve often thought they might benefit from going wildly off-road once in awhile.)
I do remember thinking the Herald was at any second going to announce that there was trouble in River City. For the really adventurous, both performances can be accessed here.
Just listening, though, the music side is pretty impressive.
I know it was a school staging, what I was objecting to was the very literal take. Whilst I can tell a lot of research has gone into it and as such it’s interesting, I don’t think this is the kind of work that should be taken literally. And, yes, if not in college then I don’t know when we should be expecting people to try something unexpected.
Thank you for the link, they have quite a few things up, very good idea. I’ve watched about half of it and though it’s still pretty literal it’s a more interesting staging 🙂
As far as music goes it reminded me a lot of one of my favourite downtempo tracks so naturally I took to it like a fish to the water 😉
I agree, it bogs down pretty fast under a literal interpretation. Also if the chorus is checking their feet to see if they’re lining up properly it kind of blows the atmosphere. 🙂
to be fair, it’s the kind of music where you imagine chemical stimulation would help the orchestra and everybody else involved better enjoy the endless scales 😉
after getting past the initial impression of “remains of the day” soundtrack mixing in with “the mummy”, very interesting music! (but i’ll probably return for a 2nd round some days later to see if digestion is different..) . the usage of CT is indeed quite different.. so i went reading up on wiki, they didn’t quite use a contralto here so you don’t hear as much the contrast in sound, but i also quite like the mixture of his high voice vs the soprano + lower female voices (though i might be mistaken his for the soprano most of the time 🙂 )
also, according to wiki:
“for the unprepared listener the music of this opera is more accessible than that of its predecessors, the “hardcore” minimalist Einstein and the oratorio-like Satyagraha.”
now i have voices in head: go go go, check it out, minimalist Einstein!! 😀
I’ve never listened to the other Glass operas, I went straight to this because I liked Akhenaten! I think Einstein on the Beach is the one where you’re allowed to go out of the hall as you please because it’s basically the same music for 8 hours 😉
8 hours! i have patience but that’s pushing it 😀
that’s why Philip Glass was thoughtful enough to include discretionary snack breaks 😉
I dunno, I thought Satyagraha was pretty accessible, and what’s not to like about a one-page libretto?
Never had a chance to see Akhnaten, but I do have a fond memory of me and my Mom sitting in the 4th row for PG Ensemble doing excerpts. Right in front of the stacks. It was awesome.