Juggling in time in itself made a dazzling three-dimensional outline of the music, and it was the juggling that was the force Akhnaten used to force out the polytheistic High Priest of Amon (tenor Aaron Blake) in Act II. But choreographed by Sean Gandini, this group was well integrated into the music. On paper, the use of what was called in the program the “Skills Ensemble” might seem bizarre. One of the fundamental tools McDermott uses is exaggerated slow movements-fascinating in that it recalls Wilson’s technique as well, and reveals this is the most transparent, intuitive, and meaningful realization of Glass’s style.īut then there were the jugglers. The opera-running 3.5 hours with two intermissions-is close to nothing but music and its manifestation in physical space and time. Just enough alike and just enough different, they sang as individuals and spoke as one voice depending on the moment in the score. The vocal blend of Costanzo’s Akhnaten with mezzo J’Nai Bridges as his wife, Nefertiti (also making her debut at the Met), and soprano Disella Lárusdóttir as his mother, Queen Tye, was sublime. J’Nai Bridges as Nefertiti, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Akhnaten, andĭísella Lárusdóttir as Queen Tye in Akhnaten. He is first seen, unwrapped from a giant cocoon, naked and hairless, but what commanded the attention was his posture, his deliberate gait, the way he held himself as he was clothed in the spectacular raiments of the god-king of Egypt. What sets him apart from other countertenors is the uncanny feminine timbre in his sound, a quality that combines the human and the otherworldly. Without the distraction of what the characters might be saying, one responded to what they were doing, and from the ritual choruses to the solos and small ensembles, one felt the relationship that comes from the brain’s fundamental reaction to song a sense of community and oneness.Ĭostanzo’ s gorgeous voice could not have been more perfect. Rather, getting to the core of singing, the human voice and body, not only makes for visceral characterization but Friday brought out some of the most affecting singing heard at the Met. The chorus and secondary characters sing a mix of ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, and Hebrew, but mostly everyone sings either “Ha” or “Ah.” Seat-back titles are barely used because they barely have any use. He’s a bass-baritone, which in this opera means nothing, as it’s solely a speaking part, introducing scenes and narrating parts of the story.Īkhenaten has one solo in English (the language changes depending on the nationality of the audience), a hymn to the sun god Aten in Act II. That role was played by Zachary James, making his Met debut. Most of the words in Akhnaten go to the king’s dead father, Amenhotep III. The challenge that Glass’s first three operas pose is that they are dense with ideas and meaning, but light on the libretto side, with either no story ( Einstein) or little in the way of sung text. This production by Phelim McDermott, originally made for the English National Opera and LA Opera, stars countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as the Egyptian king who tried to institute monotheism 500 years before the Axial age, and over a thousand before the Christian Era. (The Met presented Satyagraha in 2011, and back in 1976 Glass and director Robert Wilson famously financed their own two-night production of Einstein on the Beach at the house). Photo: Karen AlmondĪkhnaten, the last opera in Philip Glass’s trilogy of science, politics, and religion, finally made it to the Metropolitan Opera Friday night. Anthony Roth Costanzo sings the title role in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera.