jeb@eisx.UUCP (Jim Beckman) (11/16/84)
<> Last Tuesday I heard Philip Glass's new opera, AKHNATEN, at the New York City Opera. I am not a fan of contemporary music, but the Glass performance was included in my NYCO subscription series. I seriously considered not going, but I already had spent the money for the tickets. So I decided to at least sit through the first act, then I could feel free to leave. With all this negative bias on my part, I was very pleasantly surprised - I really enjoyed the show, and happily stayed for all three acts. My impression of the music: long stretches seemed to consist of several elements (repetitive melodic or rhythmic lines) running along in parallel. Every so often one of these lines would undergo a sudden small phase shift, which would completely change the total impression. There were times when it did tend to remind one of the sounds accompanying a Space Invaders game, but I found it largely interesting and entertaining. The singing: Akhnaten is a counter-tenor role, and was sung by Christopher Robson. The counter-tenor voice isn't heard that often, and seemed very appropriate for the role in question, since Akhnaten's sexuality was somewhat ambiguous. The other singing seemed quite acceptable to me, but I am easily pleased. My impression was that the voices were used as additional repetitive lines added on top of the orchestral and choral lines. Staging: one reviewer thought the NYCO staging was terribly cheap. I'll admit it was pretty spare, but to try to do anything on the grand Egyptian scale with any kind of realism would mean a quantum jump in expense, and NYCO just can't afford it. It didn't bother me. There did seem to be an awful lot of water and sand being thrown around. Overall, a very enjoyable experience. I would be interested to hear from others who have seem this opera, or other music from Glass. Jim Beckman AT&T-ISL, South Plainfield, NJ eisx!jeb