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.”

Akhnaten la opera review