United Kingdom Glass, Akhnaten: Soloists, expertise ensemble, Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera / Karen Kamensek (conductor). London Coliseum, 29.3.2023. (CC)
Production:
Director – Phelim McDermott
Set Designer – Tom Pye
Costume Designer – Kevin Pollard
Lighting Designer – Bruno Poet
Choreography – Sean Gandini
Cast:
Akhnaten – Anthony Roth Costanzo
Nefertiti – Chrystal E. Williams
Queen Tye –: Haegee Leee
Scribe – Zachary James
Aye – Jolyon Loyy
Horemhab – Benson Wilson
Daughters of Akhnaten – Ellie Neate (Bekhetaten); Isabelle Peters (Meretaten); Ella Taylor (Maketaten); Felicity Bucklandy (Ankhesenpaaten); Amy Holylandy (Neferneferuaten); Lauren Young (Sotopenre)
Gandini Juggling
Back in 2016, Phelim McDermott’s manufacturing of Glass’s phenomenal opera Akhnaten was contemporary and new (see my overview, which matches into some element concerning the background of the juggling side of the manufacturing, and likewise the non secular/spiritual significance of Akhnaten’s monotheism). The manufacturing returned in 2019 and seeing it in 2023 simply brings house the facility of each Glass’s music and McDermott’s staging. I nonetheless really feel a sigh of reduction approaching once we strategy the scene wherein Glass seems again at Akhnaten’s time from the current. McDermott handles it sensitively (a far cry from the English National Opera manufacturing of this work within the Eighties).
The inclusion of juggling – recognized from numerous Egyptian writings and artefacts – stays a captivating factor to this, and Improbable‘s contribution is faultless. The repeated motions of juggling do indeed seem to map onto those of Glass’s music quite properly, and naturally this could act as a kind of silent refrain reflecting occasions via their actions. Bruno Poet’s lighting is exceptional, not least within the remaining scene the place Akhnaten is seen on the prime of a staircase in opposition to an illuminated orange solar (‘Ra’, the one remaining God from the pantheon in Akhnaten’s reign).
Of the three figures that adjustments the course of historical past that Glass selected as operatic topics, Akhnaten is the least well-known (the others are Einstein for Einstein on the Beach and Gandhi for Satyagraha). Yet Glass locations him in equal significance. He is fascinating – a hermaphrodite (stunningly mirrored on this manufacturing and thru Kevin Pollard’s costumes), it is just proper he ought to be represented by the crystal-clear voice of a countertenor. Anthony Roth Costanzo has had nice success with this function, starring within the Met recording – stay from November 23, 2019 – with the current conductor, Karen Kamensek. Personally, I discovered the ENO orchestra darker nonetheless then their American counterparts within the opening, simply accurately, and completely equal to their Met colleagues, if not surpassing them, all through.
Recently, Costanzo was made a Visiting Fellow on the University of Oxford for his work in decoding historical historic information to tell his performances of this opera, and for nurturing curiosity in Egyptology. That kind of devotion to a job is exceptional, and he does look like one with Akhnaten. He appears to be one with Glass’s necessities, too, together with the slowed-down bodily actions one sees. He sings with excellent, blanched tone, and delivers unimaginable vocal power at occasions. Dramatically, he tasks the virtually alien strangeness of the character of Akhnaten to perfection. It is unsettling, and so it ought to be.
Akhnaten’s spouse, Nefertiti, is sung by Chrystal E. Williams, who exudes gravitas; the function of his mom, Queen Tye, advantages from the glistening soprano of Haegee Lee. Wonderful to see an ENO Harewood Artist among the many predominant solid members: Benson Wilson performs the final and future Pharoah Horemhab with an earthy voice and actual dramatic authority. Jolson Loy makes a tremendous ENO debut as Aye (Nefertiti’s father and advisor to the Pharoah), depicted as a kind of voodoo circus grasp (he sports activities a cranium on his prime hat).
Zachary James returns within the spoken function of the Scribe, delivering his strains authoritatively, main into the chthonic percussion of the Funeral of Amenhotep III completely (and the way brilliantly the refrain delivered its post-Orff Minimalism right here). The division of the stage into sections, in one among which we have now seen the physique of Akhnaten’s father (Akhnaten was initially Amenhotep IV), is a superb use of house. James isn’t any stranger to Glass, by the way – he created the function of Abraham Lincoln in The Perfect American.
It is a measure of the experience of vocal casting on this manufacturing that the Epilogue – the ghosts of Akhnaten, Nefertiti and Queen Tye (Costanza, Williams and Lee) – meshed so completely collectively. The six Daughters of Akhnaten, together with two ENO Harewood Artists, Isabelle Peters and Amy Holyland, equally labored collectively completely as a unit (Act III, Scene 1, ‘The Family’). Tenor Paul Curievici was a tremendous High Priest of Amon.
Karen Kamensek conducts with the authority she has attained via maximal publicity to this rating – it’s absolutely a part of her core psychic make-up by now. She understands how Glass sometimes subverts the rhythms (in the direction of the top of Amenhotep III’s funeral, for instance), and the outcomes are massively thrilling. She understands the facility, on this opera, of the easy ascending scale (and Glass’s easy inverted counterpoint in opposition to it), first encountered in ‘The Coronation of Akhnaten’ and later, in fact heard within the opera’s exceptional Epilogue. The Orchestra of English National Opera responds in variety. This rating requires each stamina in a bodily sense, but additionally a stamina of focus, and to my ears a minimum of the stress dropped not one jot all through.
ENO stays a nationwide treasure, and the London Coliseum stays its house, a minimum of for now. How great to see each seat full, mid-run. ENO has additionally lengthy been a requisite counterpoint to The Royal Opera, and its relationship with the operas of Philip Glass is one among its most exceptional achievements. This Akhnaten is completely unmissable.
Colin Clarke