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Post by Samwise on Mar 8, 2019 17:24:24 GMT
I'm a huge fan of Philip Glass, and I loved Phelim McDermott's Satyagraha, but this production of Akhnaten didn't work for me. The music is performed well both on stage and in the pit, and the design and costumes are beautiful, but if you're hoping to see the opera's plot - the rise and fall of Akhenaten's new religion - depicted on stage, you're going to be disappointed. A case in point is the scene in which Akhenaten and his followers attack the Temple of Amun and rebuild/rededicate it to his new god, but you wouldn't actually know that was happening, because all you get is a juggling show. That's right, juggling. All of the plot in this opera is replaced by jugglers on stage. That's all you get. It's a disgraceful treatment of the story.
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4,983 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Apr 10, 2019 15:30:50 GMT
Given how successful this and Satyagraha have been, hopefully it won't be too long until Einstein on the Beach returns to London (although IIRC that's been at Barbican rather than ENO). Yes, Einstein was done at the Barbican in 2012 - not sure where the original UK production was? Interestingly when I saw it in the 2013 run Satyagraha wasn't the big hit these two runs of Akhnaten have been - I got cheap stalls tickets through TKTS. Did it do better in the 2017/18 run? Anyway, nice to see them doing so well with adventurous repertoire. Hope they do more of this sort of thing (would love to see some John Adams for instance - Nixon in China or Doctor Atomic would be good!) With the right marketing I'd think they could get a similar audience in. @xanderl Nixon in Scotland www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/nixon-in-china/ |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 17:03:58 GMT
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