Akhnaten (ack-NAAR-ten) is Philip Glass' third opera and is easily his best and most comprehendible. Especially when compared to Einstein on the Beach in which the Chorus sing nothing but numbers and the dreaded so fa la (though, unfortunately, without Mary Poppins and a bunch of crazy Austrian children wearing curtains and hiding from Nazis) which on my patented Scale of Artistic Weirdness sits up near a 10 out of 10.

Funnily enough, Akhnaten is about the Egyptian pharoah and the first true monotheist and possible hermaphrodite Akhnaten. To the person on the street, he's probably best known as Nefertiti's husband. A brief Egyptology lesson: For squillions of years the Egyptians worshipped a stack of gods who had the heads of hippos and birds and Madeline Allbright. Everyone was quite happy with this arrangement, the Nile kept flooding and the Egyptians invented beer- for which billions of people worldwide are grateful. They spent their spare time lugging great big blocks around the desert to make pyramids, possibly because they didn't have such intelligent diversions as Epinions where they could write badly punctuated reviews on papyrus, amulets and embalmers. We would have had HIPPOS gallivanting around going I ARE REPORT YOU TO OSIRIS!

But I digress.

Into this hotbed of godly multiplicity came Akhnaten, who was somehow related to Tutankahmen but I can never remember if he was younger or older. He had a dishy sheila for a wife named Nefertiti and a dominant mother named Tye. He demolished a lot of temples and declared that there was only one god, named Aten, i.e the Sun God. Akhnaten then built his own city where he lived with Neffers and his equally comely daughters, with whom he is thought to have known particularly intimately. Unfortunately, the Egyptians weren't really into incest as much as they were into crushing the Syrians and Nubians and as a General, Akhnaten was sadly deficient. Subsequently he was assasinated by his Generals and High Priests, the pantheon of gods was restored, his city was destroyed and Nefertiti probably became a common hooker on the back streets of Thebes.

In other words, it's tremendous stuff for an opera. Glass' interpretation is written by himself with a group of consultants. Almost all the text is from original Egyptian sources from Akhnaten's period. Everything is sung in a variety of Ancient languages, and each scene is introduced by a Scribe, speaking in the language of the audience. This distancing of language creates a monumental tableau of scenes from Akhnaten's life- from the death of his predecessor to his own removal from the throne.

Musically, Akhnaten has a deliciously unusual sound. It's a big orchestra of 65 players- but with no violins which usually are about a quarter of that number. Instead, we get lots of woodwinds to create the seamless, seemingly without breath, running phrases that Glass is so easily stereotyped by.

The opening scene is the magnificent Funeral Scene of the previous king. It's incredibly upbeat and loud, with more and more voices entering over the eight minutes as the funeral procession slowly unfolds across the stage. Pounding drums, tootling woodwinds, fanfarical (I just made that word up, but you get the idea) brass, driving strings and a huge vocal chorus.

Other notable scenes including the Demolition of the Temple in Act II, with Queen Tye's pumping high notes and the erotically charged and cool Love Duet in the following scene- cleverly accompanied by trombone which is not the usual amorous instrument of choice.

The worst scene, dramatically, is the Epilogue where the characters' ghosts wander round the ruins of the city with the Scribe becoming a tourist guide, with text from the 1980 Fodor's Guide to Egypt . It's heartcrushingly twee, and as it recycles music from the opening of the piece you tend to wonder whether Glass had run out of musical steam or interest in the work.

There is a lot of symbolism in Akhnaten, but to explain it would bore everyone's socks off. However, the most striking is the casting of a Countertenor (Paul Esswood) for the title role. This is an oddly genderless voice, and can be quite creepy for someone who hasn't heard it before. The only way to describe it is a woman's voice sung by a man. Nefertiti (Milargo Vargas) is sung by a contralto whilst his mother, Queen Tye (Melinda Liebermann) is a soprano. This is an interesting voice reversal for the operatic standard. It does however provide an interesting pyramid (PYRAMID, get it, huh? ) of sexual power and influence- Tye on top of Akhnaten on top of Nefertiti. Did I mention that it's also possible Akhnaten was fiddling with his mother? There are a number of odd parallels between Oedpius Rex, some believe Akhnaten was ol' Oedpius, but it's long, complex and tedious. The husband/wife-countertenor/contralto arrangement also allows the voices to be entangled sensously around each other in the delicious love duet.

One of Glass' best tricks, which obviously does not come across on the recording, is keeping Akhnaten onstage for the entire first Act- but not opening his mouth to sing until the very last scene of the act for the sexually connotated Window of Appearances . This builds up an extraordinary suspense in the title character, and when he opens his mouth and the eerie countertenor voice emerges it sends a chill down the spine.

Glass' music is very repetitive, using subtle changes in rhythm and harmony from his time working with Ravi Shankar. If you're not familiar with his work, you may find watching paint dry more interesting than the recording. This is a very visual opera. However, with the appropriate background knowledge (the three CDs come in a package which weighs the same as a house brick and includes a booklet about the size of War and Peace ) it is a deeply rewarding musical experience.


Some Boring Stuff

World Premiere: Stuttgart State Opera, March 3 1984.

Akhnaten...Paul Esswood
Nefertiti... Milargo Vargas
Queen Tye... Melinda Lieberman
Horemhab... Tero Hannula
Amon High Priest... Helmut Holzapfel
Aye... Cornelius Hauptmann
Scribe... David Warrilow

The Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra and Chorus
conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.

Recommended: Yes