Tonight's Akhnaten-One Met Lets Us Down-Another Met Succeeds

[lennygoran]

Over the years we've seen many operas but tonight's production of Akhnaten must be one of the most ridiculous productions we've ever seen-between the juggling and the failure to use surtitles what a disappointing evening. For me the only part they got right was the famous Hymn at the end of act 2-no juggling and the surtitles were used--OTOH the Metropolitan Museum had 2 superlative exhibits--The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I examines the profound significance of European armor at the dawn of the Renaissance, through the lens of Emperor Maximilian I's (1459–1519) remarkable life. ---and the work of painter Paul Vallotton. Len

[John F]

I've always suspected that the most interesting thing about this opera is the idea, and sampling some of the music (Glass at his most minimal) hasn't increased my interest. Playing in the orchestra for this must take away the will to live. Still, I guess I'll watch it on TV. Len says there are no subtitles - the libretto is "in the original languages" but how does one speak or sing ancient Egyptian? Seems like obscurantism to me.

[lennygoran]

I've always suspected that the most interesting thing about this opera is the idea, and sampling some of the music (Glass at his most minimal) hasn't increased my interest. Playing in the orchestra for this must take away the will to live. Still, I guess I'll watch it on TV. Len says there are no subtitles - the libretto is "in the original languages" but how does one speak or sing ancient Egyptian? Seems like obscurantism to me.

John LA has alot of their production on youtube and I believe there were surtitles-gee even the narrators spoken words in English weren't surtitled-againg that juggling drove me crazy-was I at the Big apple circus or the Metropolitan Opera! Len in secaucus.

[lennygoran]

I've always suspected that the most interesting thing about this opera is the idea, and sampling some of the music (Glass at his most minimal) hasn't increased my interest. Playing in the orchestra for this must take away the will to live. Still, I guess I'll watch it on TV. Len says there are no subtitles - the libretto is "in the original languages" but how does one speak or sing ancient Egyptian? Seems like obscurantism to me.

John LA has alot of their production on youtube and I believe there were surtitles-gee even the narrators spoken words in English weren't surtitled-again that juggling drove me crazy-was I at the Big apple circus or the Metropolitan Opera! Len in secaucus.

[maestrob]

Ah, well, another miscalculation by Gelb!

[Rach3]

More on Glass generally from WQXR (nit a review of the opera):

https://www.wqxr.org/story/philip-glass-minimalist-met/

[Modernistfan]

I have the Columbia recording, and I cannot believe that the Met would not use supertitles for an opera where about 75% of the dialog is in ancient Egyptian, about 20% in Akkadian (a form of Babylonian), and about 5% in Hebrew. Maybe some of the audience (a small minority at that) might be able to pick up on the Hebrew, but who the heck knows ancient Egyptian or Akkadian)?