The eye-walloping, period-melding costumes are by Kevin Pollard, with lighting by Bruno Poet. It features towering sets and stunning, minimalist vistas by Tom Pye. The production, which had its premiere in March at the English National Opera, is directed by Phelim McDermott with a remarkable combination of sculptural subtlety and circus-like flair.

– 1358 B.C.), and introduced the first state-sponsored monotheistic religion. This, the third of Glass’s “portrait operas” (following Einstein on the Beach in 1975 and Satyagraha, about Gandhi, in 1980), is about the pharaoh who ruled 18th Dynasty Egypt (1375 B.C. Opera’s Akhnaten, it is the only way to properly describe the production’s musical and visual impact. The accolade “must-see” is greatly overused. L to R: Patrick Blackwell as Aye, Stacey Tappan as Queen Tye and Zachary James as the Scribe | Credit: Craig T. The year Philip Glass’s meditative, minimalist opera, Akhnaten had its world premiere in 1984, Ronald Reagan was America’s president and no one had ever heard of a smart phone.Ī span of 33 years separate that premiere at the Stuttgart State Opera in Germany and the eye-dazzling production of Akhnaten that Los Angeles Opera unveiled Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a production that can only be described as visionary. Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role of Akhnaten | Credit: Craig T.

Akhnaten la opera review