Akhnaten
By A.J. Goldmann December 27, 2016
In 1983, Philip Glass completed his “Portrait Trilogy” (“Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha”) with “Akhnaten,” a lyrical opera about the progenitor of one of the world’s oldest monotheistic systems of beliefs, Atenism. The U.S. premiere was sleekly minimal and decidedly arty. Three decades on, Glass sits atop the small pantheon of contemporary composers who enjoy popular success.
The Los Angeles Opera’s splashy new production of “Akhnaten,” a co-production with English National Opera, where I saw it earlier this year, shows how what was once considered an avant-garde novelty has entered the ranks of modern classics. Contemporary operas rarely get performed past their premieres, but “Akhnaten” has been seen in over 40 different productions over the past 33 years. Phelim McDermott’s colorful production was at times a bit too Cirque du Soleil for my taste (juggling played a crucial role), but it shows how thoroughly the opera-going public has embraced this three-hour-long minimalist masterpiece performed in dead languages including Biblical Hebrew and Akkadian.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
