Interestingly, in the CD booklet, Philip Glass says ‘… Satyagraha… is a large choral opera… In Akhnaten the emphasis is orchestral, with choral and solo voices sharing common ground with the orchestra.’ Far be it for me to differ, but I feel that in Akhnaten everything is ratcheted up: yes the orchestra is richer textured and more interesting, but then the soloists are more characters in a drama - if only because they last throughout the opera as opposed to being completely changed every act.

The choir, perhaps, benefits least - the writing is not markedly different from that of Satyagraha (listen to the opening of Satyagraha act 3 before assuming that it’s all like act 2). The whole work is more ‘melodious’ even though all the basic material is, like Satyagraha, ultimately derived from the same source - Einstein on the beach.

There is a strong issue on the amount of repetition which is cut in the performance - I’ve alluded to this below. But note that the CBS release of Einstein in the beach is so emaciated it is difficult to get a feel for the piece as originally intended. (The CDs run 2 hours 40 minutes - if you play all the repeats, as the original production did - the work lasts well over four hours!)

important Be aware, when listening to the CDs of Akhnaten, that the whole performance has the air of someone who couldn’t give a toss. Presumably deliberate, this infects not just the orchestra but also the soloists. It’s very disappointing. The ENO production, which I saw twice and of which I have a tape via Radio 3, shows the work to be luminous and subtle, containing the single most beautiful piece of music I have heard from Philip Glass - Akhnaten’s hymn at the end of Act 2.

2 There is enough to make a good sing. The choir sings for a net 40 minutes (but see note on durations). It is very much at the same level of difficulty and repetitiveness as Satyagraha - though note that act 2 of Satyagraha is not a good representative of that work as a whole.

3 The Philip Glass connection should lead to help, assistance, publicity… (and it appears to be published by Dunvagen, not IPA, which helps).

4 Some sort of semi-staging is surely possible. This will offer some interesting challenges to the choir as both singers and entrepreneurs!

5 It would fit excellently into any innovative programming regime - without being esoteric.

6 It should generate excellent audiences

 Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages, the main ones being

1 It is an opera, not an oratorio/cantata or whatever. Whilst there’s certainly a good story, the static nature of the presentation and the lack, let’s face of it, of any real characterisation anywhere means that it’s more a set of tableaux vivants than a dynamic drama. I think this makes it harder to semistage than a work where there is plenty of drama in the music to compensate for the rudimentary presentation. However, if the drama isn’t there in the first place, the audience can’t feel deprived of it!

2 Its style. It will drive some people mad! Akhnaten was the first Glass opera to call for the house orchestra, rather than some hybrid of the PG Ensemble. One Dutch orchestra went on strike rather than play it (but the ENO Orchestra appeared to have no problems…).

 Durations

If the recording of Satyagraha is anything to go by, the timings given here - taken from the commercial recording - represent a considerably cut version. (Cut in the sense that not all repeats are taken and, where sections are repeated, these may not be played at all.) Whether these cuts should be reinstated, or different or more cuts instituted is in an interesting matter. Not only should the patience and stamina of both chorus and audience be considered, one should bear in mind that it is possible to change the proportions of the whole work but adding or removing music. For all I know the recording does not faithfully preserve the opera’s proportions as originally written.

 Choral contribution in minutes

The choral contribution varies from scene to scene (as recorded on CD). I haven’t used a stopwatch: the time given in this column roughly reflects the lengths of the sections of music in which the chorus participates - as with Satyagraha the music is in clearly defined sections which either contain the chorus singling more or less continuously or don’t contain the chorus at all

Songs from liquid days
The photographer