Review

Akhnaten, English National Opera: a lot of hot air

Anthony Roth Costanzo as Akhnaten at the London Coliseum
Anthony Roth Costanzo as Akhnaten at the London Coliseum Credit: Alastair Muir

As Philip Glass’s music goes – which is perhaps not very far – Akhnaten’s score displays some harmonic substance and variety of colour. The mechanical step-by step sequences that constitute Glass’s trademark are less dominant than in Einstein on the Beach or Satyagraha. The orchestration has distinct flavour – the absence of violins balanced by the plethora of brass – and the vocal writing occasionally finds melodic shape. There’s even a climax of sorts, thunderously percussive and brutal.  

But this isn’t enough to sustain a three-act opera, and there are prolonged patches of flat aridity when my mind wandered off and refocused minutes later to find no change. One is either mesmerised or bored stiff: this isn’t an idiom which engages the heart or intelligence.  

The plot promises so much in synopsis: the life of the androgynous Pharaoh, father to Tutankhamun, who establishes a new monotheistic religion and is then assassinated in a riot of reactionary populace. Verdi could have done something on that basis, but Glass takes it only as the premise for static tableaux devoid of conflict or anything recognisably human. The ritual is all.

Phelim McDermott and his designers Tom Pye and Kevin Pollard have certainly done a magnificent job on this spectacular new staging – radically different from David Freeman’s austere version recalled from the opera’s British première in 1985.

Framed by a three-tiered structure of raw industrial chic, the costumes are a fabulous mélange of ancient styles and primitive splendours. Paraded in long slow processions, they create some ravishing images. If only McDermott could have found some more engaging way to animate the drama than the only mildly impressive jugglers who exchange balls and skittles to no great purpose.

For an American opera came an American conductor and two American performers in the leads. Karen Kamensek kept firm control in the pit; Zachary James was imposing as the pontificating Scribe and Narrator; and as doomed Akhnaten,  Anthony Roth Costanzo was as touchingly vulnerable in his nakedness as he was in a regally gilded farthingale, his squeaky counter-tenor dispatching the vocal business effectively.  

Brits in supporting roles proved adequate to the small challenges presented to them. The beleaguered ENO chorus relented on their threat to strike during the first act and acquitted themselves honourably. Paid-up Glass fans should be entranced; the rest of us will sense the protracted expulsion of hot air.

Until 18 March. Box office 0207 845 9300, eno.org -

 

License this content