Opera reviews: Phillip Glass's Akhnaten and Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night

4 / 5 stars
Phillip Glass's Akhnaten

PHILLIP GLASS’S Akhnaten returns to the Coliseum 30 years after its UK premiere, this time in a sumptuous new production by Phelim McDermott and the Improbable Theatre Company.

Anthony Roth Costanzo as AkhnatenPH

Anthony Roth Costanzo plays the titular pharaoh robed in brocade and gold

Glass’s music, often tagged as minimalist, is mesmerising in its repetitive themes that induce a mood of “mindfulness”. McDermott’s eye-catching staging is quite the opposite of minimal, though. It is inspired by all things exotic and baroque, borrowing from ancient Egyptian friezes of animal-headed gods and gilded sarcophagi to explore the life of Akhnaten. 

The Egyptian pharaoh of the title is best known for his fatal attempt to force his subjects to worship a monotheistic deity. Probably the first king to learn the dangers of tinkering with religion, he was deposed and killed by his subjects. The boy king Tutankhamen succeeded and the Egyptian people returned to their multitudinous gods. 

Tom Pye’s three-tiered set provides space for variation. While Akhnaten’s father is embalmed in a subterranean chamber, a troupe of jugglers on the upper tier correlates Glass’s circling music with the perpetual movement of juggling balls – spherical objects had religious significance. 

Philip Glass’s AkhnatenPH

The grand staging is at odds with the minimalism of Glass's music

At the start, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo descends to the stage, a naked and vulnerable figure, for his Coronation. In a reverse of the Emperor’s New Clothes, his nakedness is ceremoniously clothed in heavy brocade robes and gilded head-dress. 

His love aria with Emma Carrington’s Nefertiti in the second act signals his retreat from the real world to isolation in company with his wife, his mother Queen Tye (Rebecca Bottone) and his six daughters. Designer Kevin Pollard’s gauze costumes at this point suggest a royal family cocooned from reality. 

Throughout the opera Zachary James’s imposing Scribe comments from the side, in English, on the history of Akhnaten. The texts from ancient hymns, prayers and inscriptions are sung in their original Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian (an extinct language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia). Altogether, it’s a splendidly theatrical evening that sees English National Opera in top form. 

VERDICT 4/5

Oliver Johnston As LevkoPH

A 32-strong chorus of Rusalkas support Oliver Johnston's Levko

Royal Academy of Music Opera has transferred to the concrete bunker of Ambika P3 in the University of Westminster until its new theatre and recital hall opens next year. However, the grim surroundings don’t affect the lively May Night. 

Director Christopher Cowell sets Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s comic opera in a vodka distillery where villagers celebrate the coming of spring. The composer draws on folk tales from pre-revolutionary Russia featuring wicked stepmothers, witches and Rusalkas – spirits of girls who have drowned themselves for love. 

 Laura Zigmantaite and Oliver JohnstonPH

Laura Zigmantaite plays a sweet-toned Ganna

Levko, in love with Ganna, spends too many evenings out with the lads until his father starts paying unwanted attention to Ganna and he plots his revenge. Tenor Oliver Johnston is a heroic Levko, Laura Zigmantaite a sweet-toned Ganna and there’s fine comedy from Alex Otterburn’s drunken Cossack Kalenik and Bozidar Smiljanic as Levko’s father. 

A 32-strong chorus of peasants and Rusalkas provides plenty of back-up and the Royal Academy Sinfonia, conducted by Gareth Hancock, tackles Rimsky-Korsakov’s inimitable score with verve.

VERDICT 4/5

Philip Glass’s Akhnaten HHHHI English National Opera, The Coliseum, London WC2 (Tickets 020 7845 9300/eno.org; £12-£125)

Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night HHHHI Royal Academy Opera, Ambika P3, London NW1 (Run ended)

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