Akhnaten is an
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the
pharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
(Amenhotep IV), written by the
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
classicalClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
composer
Philip GlassPhilip Morris Glass is an American music composer. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .Although his music is often, though controversially, described as...
in 1983.
Akhnaten had its world premiere on March 24, 1984 at the
Stuttgart State OperaStaatsoper Stuttgart is an opera company in Stuttgart, Germany.The company is based at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, known locally as the Grosses Haus, which was designed by Max Littmann and opened in 1912 with a performance of Tosca...
, under the German title
Echnaton.
Paul EsswoodPaul Esswood is an English countertenor. He is best known for his singing in Bach cantatas and the operas of Handel and Monteverdi. Along with his countrymen Alfred Deller and James Bowman, he led the revival of countertenor singing in modern times.Esswood was born in West Bridgford, England. He...
sang the title role, German director
Achim FreyerAchim Freyer is a German stage director, set designer and painter. A protege of Bertolt Brecht, Freyer has become one of the world's leading opera directors, working throughout Europe and, since 2002, in the United States, principally with the Los Angeles Opera...
staged the opera in an abstract style with highly ritualistic movements.
Akhnaten is an
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the
pharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
(Amenhotep IV), written by the
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
classicalClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
composer
Philip GlassPhilip Morris Glass is an American music composer. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .Although his music is often, though controversially, described as...
in 1983.
Akhnaten had its world premiere on March 24, 1984 at the
Stuttgart State OperaStaatsoper Stuttgart is an opera company in Stuttgart, Germany.The company is based at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, known locally as the Grosses Haus, which was designed by Max Littmann and opened in 1912 with a performance of Tosca...
, under the German title
Echnaton.
Paul EsswoodPaul Esswood is an English countertenor. He is best known for his singing in Bach cantatas and the operas of Handel and Monteverdi. Along with his countrymen Alfred Deller and James Bowman, he led the revival of countertenor singing in modern times.Esswood was born in West Bridgford, England. He...
sang the title role, German director
Achim FreyerAchim Freyer is a German stage director, set designer and painter. A protege of Bertolt Brecht, Freyer has become one of the world's leading opera directors, working throughout Europe and, since 2002, in the United States, principally with the Los Angeles Opera...
staged the opera in an abstract style with highly ritualistic movements. The American premiere was held on October 12, 1984 at the
Houston Grand OperaHouston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and Houston cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit and Edward Bing. With a current annual operating budget of $20 million, HGO has grown from a small regional company...
, where Glass's opera
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 is a full-scale opera by Philip Glass with a libretto by Doris Lessing.The opera was co-commissioned by English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam and Theater Kiel, and co-produced with Artpark, Lewiston, New York...
also premiered.
Editorial note: the composer uses the spelling Akhnaten, while the more conventional spelling of the name is Akhenaten. Given the nature of Egyptian hieroglyphsEgyptian hieroglyphs was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
, the absence of a vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
is not linguistically significant. In this article, the first version refers to the opera and the second to the pharaoh.
According to the composer, this work is the culmination of his two other
biographicalA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
operas,
Einstein on the BeachEinstein on the Beach is an opera scored and written by Philip Glass and designed and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. It also contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs...
and
SatyagrahaSatyagraha is an opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance de Jong. The opera is loosely based on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, and is the second part of Glass's "Portrait Trilogy" of operas about men who changed the...
(about Mohandas Gandhi). These three people —
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
,
EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
and Gandhi — were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived, in particular
AkhenatenAkhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV . A Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, he ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
in religion,
EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
in science, and Gandhi in politics.
The text, taken from original sources, is sung in the original languages, linked together with the commentary of a narrator in a modern language, such as
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
or
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
. Egyptian texts of the period are taken from a poem of Akhenaten himself, from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead, and from extracts of decrees and letters from the
AmarnaThe site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor...
period, the seventeen-year period of Akhenaten's rule. Other portions are in
AkkadianAkkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
and
BiblicalThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
. Akhnaten's
Hymn to the Sun is sung in the language of the audience.
Roles
| Akhnaten |
Countertenor A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or more rarely the normal or modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
|
| Nefertiti, Wife of Akhnaten |
Contralto In music, a contralto is a type of classical female singing voice with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice. The typical contralto range lies between the F below middle C to two Fs above middle C...
|
| Queen Tye, Mother of Akhnaten |
Soprano A soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
|
| Horemhab, General and future Pharaoh |
BaritoneBaritone is a type of classical male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek βαρύτονος, meaning 'deep sounding', music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second G below middle C to the F above...
|
| Amon High Priest |
Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
|
| Aye, Father of Nefertiti and advisor to the Pharaoh |
Bass |
| The Daughters of Akhnaten |
3 Soprano A soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
s, 3 ContraltoIn music, a contralto is a type of classical female singing voice with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice. The typical contralto range lies between the F below middle C to two Fs above middle C...
s |
| The Scribe |
Narrator |
Small male chorus (Priests), Large opera chorus (The people of Egypt)
Music
The orchestra's size is about the size employed for early 19th-century opera: 2
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s ( one doubling
piccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
), 2
oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s (both doubling
oboe d'amoreThe oboe d'amore , less commonly oboe d'amour, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano or alto of the oboe family...
), 2
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
s,
bass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare...
, 2
bassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...
s, 2 french horns, 2
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
s, 2
tromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s, tuba,
percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
(3 players),
celestaThe celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
(doubling
synthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument that is capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies...
), 12
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
s, 8
celliThe cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
, 6
double bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
es.
Since the Stuttgart State Opera house was being restored in 1984 and the
orchestra pitAn orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...
of the Stuttgart State theater, where the premiere was to take place, was considerably smaller, Glass chose to completely leave out the violins (about 20), giving the orchestra a darker, sombre character, which fits the subject. Apart from this, this was Glass's most "conventional" opera orchestra until then (compared to
Einstein on the Beach, written for the six-piece Philip Glass Ensemble, and
Satyagraha, scored for
woodwindsA woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against an edge of, or opening in, the instrument, causing the air to vibrate within a resonator...
and
stringsA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in the string family are guitar, violin, viola,...
only).
Generally speaking, for the unprepared listener the music of this opera is more accessible than that of its predecessors, the "hardcore" minimalist
Einstein and the oratorio-like
Satyagraha. The music follows and underlines the dramatic context outlined by the story, and the harmonic and melodic language is more varied and changes more often, giving the music a more theatrical and almost "romantic" quality.
Synopsis
The opera is divided into three acts:
Act I: Year 1 of Akhnaten's Reign in Thebes
- Set in the key of A minor, the strings introduce a ground bass theme, with following variations. (A passacaglia
A passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. Its character is usually grave and it is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple-meter....
). The scribe recites funeral texts from the pyramids.
- Scene 1: Funeral of Akhenaten's father Amenophis III
- Heralded by hammering drums, Aye and a small male chorus chant a funeral hymn in Egyptian, later joined by the full chorus. The music is basically a march, based on the chords of A major and B major, and grows to ecstatic intensity towards the end.
- Scene 2: The Coronation of Akhnaten
- After a lengthy orchestral introduction, during which Akhnaten appears, heralded by a solo trumpet, the High Priest, Aye, and Horemhab sing a ritual text. After that, the Narrator recites a list of royal titles bestowed upon Akhnaten, while he is crowned. After the coronation, the chorus repeats the ritual text from the beginning of the scene. Again, the main key is A minor.
- Scene 3: The Window of Appearances
- After an introduction in A minor, dominated by tubular bells
Tubular bells are musical instruments in the percussion family. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm in diameter, tuned by altering its length. They range from c1 to f2 . Tubular bells are often replaced by studio chimes, which are a smaller and usually less expensive instrument...
, Akhnaten sings a praise to the Creator (in Egyptian) at the window of public appearances. This is the first time he actually sings, after he has already been on stage for 20 minutes, and the effect of his countertenorA countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or more rarely the normal or modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
voice (which in 1983 wasn't as common as nowadays) is startling. He is joined by Nefertiti, who actually sings lower notes than he, and later by Queen Tye, whose soprano soars high above the intertwining voices of the royal couple.
Act II: Years 5 to 15 in Thebes and Akhetaten
- The scene opens again in A minor, with the High Priest and a group of priests singing a hymn to Amun
Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
, principal god of the old order, in his temple. The music becomes increasingly dramatic, as Akhnaten, together with Queen Tye and his followers, attack the temple. This scene has only wordless singing. The harmonies grow very chromatic, finally reaching A flat major and E minor. The temple roof is removed and the sun god AtenAten was the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra. He became the deity of the monotheistic — in fact, monistic — religion Atenism of Amenhotep IV, who took the name Akhenaten. The worship of Aten seemed to stop shortly after Akhenaten's death...
's rays invade the temple, thus ending Amun's reign and laying the foundation for the worship of the only god Aten.
- Scene 2: Akhnaten and Nefertiti
Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for changing Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a henotheistic religion. They revered only one god, Aten, the sun disc...
- Two solo celli introduce a "love theme". Accompanied by a solo trombone while the harmony switches to H(sus), the Narrator recites a prayer-like poem to the sun god. The strings softly take over the music in E minor, and the same poem is recited again, this time actually as a love poem from Akhnaten to Nefertiti. Then Akhnaten and Nefertiti sing the same text to each other (in Egyptian), as an intimate love duet. After a while, the trumpet associated with Akhnaten joins them as the highest voice, turning the duet into a trio.
- Scene 3: The City - Dance
- The Narrator speaks a text taken from the boundary stones of the new capital of the empire, Akhet-Aten (The Horizon of Aten), describing the construction of the city, with large, light-filled spaces. After a brass fanfare, the completion of the city is celebrated in a light-hearted dance, contrasting with the stark, ritualistic music with which this act began. (In the Stuttgart premiere, the dance actually described the construction of the city)
- What now follows is a hymn to the only god Aten, a long aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
(alternating between A minor and A major) by Akhnaten, and the central piece of the opera. It is outstanding as it is the only text sung in the language of the audience, praising the sun giving life to everything. After the aria, an off-stage chorus sings Psalm 104Psalm 104 is a poem from the Book of Psalms in the Bible.-Eastern Orthodox:Its main liturgical usage in the Eastern Orthodox Church is at the beginning of vespers and the all-night vigil...
in Hebrew, dating some 400 years later, which has strong resemblances to Akhnaten's Hymn, thus emphasizing Akhnaten as the first founder of a monotheistic religion.
Act III: Year 17 and the Present
- Two Oboe d'amore play the "love theme" from Act II. We see Akhnaten, with Nefertiti and their six daughters, singing wordlessly in contemplation. It is obvious that they are oblivious of what happens outside of the palace. As the music switches from E minor to F minor, the Narrator reads letters from Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
n vassals, asking for help against their enemies. Since the king does not send troops, his land is being seized and plundered by their enemies. The scene focuses again on Akhnaten and his family, still oblivious of the country falling apart.
- Scene 2: The Attack and Fall of the City
- The music moves again to a vigorous F minor. Horemhab, Aye and the High Priest of Aten instigate the people (as the chorus), singing part of the aforementioned letters (in their original Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
) until finally the palace is attacked, the royal family killed, and the city of the sun destroyed.
- The music of the very beginning of the opera returns. The scribe recites an inscription on Aye's tomb, praising the death of "the heretic" and the new reign of the old gods. He then describes the restoration of Amun's temple by Akhnaten's son Tutenkhamun. The Prelude music grows stronger and the scene is moved to present-day Egypt, to the ruins of Amarna, the former capital Akhet-Aton. The Narrator appears as a modern tourist guide and speaks a text from a guide book, describing the ruins. "There is nothing left of this glorious city of temples and palaces".
- The ghosts of Akhnaten, Nefertiti and Queen Tye appear, singing wordlessly amongst the ruins. The funeral procession from the beginning of the opera appears on the horizon, and they join it. The music introduces a bass line from the beginning of Einstein on the Beach, which is the first part of Glass' "portrait" trilogy (The second one being Satyagraha and the third one Akhnaten), thus providing a musical bracket for the whole trilogy.
Sources
- Stuttgart State Theater, world premiere, programme (1984)
- CD booklet (Soloists, chorus and orchestra of the Stuttgart State Opera, Dennis Russell Davies, cond., CBS 1987)
- P. Glass and R. T. Jones, Music by Philip Glass, Harper Collins 1987
- Schwartz, K. Robert, "Minimalists", Phaidon Press Limited, 1996
External links