Cinemark Theater, Hazlet, NJ. Theater 11 (Seat C10, $26.72).
Story. After
Amenhotep III dies, his son Amenhotep IV is coronated. He changes his name Akhnaten (more commonly
known as Akhenaten) and forms a monotheistic religion to worship Aten, a form
of the sun god Ra. He also builds a new
city Akhetaten where he, his wife Nefertiti and their six daughters live in an
insular world. In year 17 of his reign
the priests of Amon attack and eventually kill Akhnaten. A young Tutankhamun is crowned the pharaoh
and restores the old polytheistic religion.
Program from the Dec 4 performance. As far as I know the same cast was used for all performances this season.
Conductor – Karen Kamensek. Amenhotep III & A Professor – Zachary
James, High Priest of Amon – Aaron Blake, Queen Tye – Disella Larusdottir,
Nefertiti – J’Nai Bridges.
The opera is interesting on many levels, and is also
disappointing on so many levels. Let me
elaborate on that.
Akhenaten is a historical character who reigned around
1350 BC. He is better known as the
husband of Nefertiti and father of Tutankhamun (not by Nefertiti). He did try to promulgate a monotheistic
religion and was disposed because of that. There seemed to be a concerted effort to
eradicate all traces of him after he was killed, and the city Akhetaten he
founded was destroyed. Consequently
little is known about him. Some say his
idea of monotheism was before his time, although Abraham was around before him.
This opera, together with Einstein on the Beach and
Satyagraha, are called Glass’s trilogy where the composer explored religion
(this opera), science (Einstein), and politics (Gandhi). Glass was also in charge of the libretto,
with the help of several collaborators.
With the notable exception of the “hymn” sung by Akhnaten in English, the
libretto consists mostly of syllables in various ancient languages. In most instances, no translations were
needed (and they were not provided) as it was clear what the scenes were.
The staging is surreal, for lack of a better term. A very unusual aspect is many chorus members
were trained to be jugglers for this opera.
For most of the opera there are three levels where different people
stand. For Act 2 a huge sun disc was the
focus of attention. As Akhnaten sang
“the hymn” he ascended a set of stairs, dressed in an orange outfit to match
the color of the sun.
Orchestration was also unusual in that there were no
violins; the principal viola thus got elevated to concertmaster. The reason ostensibly was because the
premiere took place in a temporary auditorium used by Stuttgart Opera during
renovation, and could not accommodate a large orchestra. That supposed gives the orchestra a warmer
and darker sound. There were no timpani
for the same space-saving reason.
Costume is probably the most prominent aspect of the
opera, at least in Met’s case. This is
brought home when Joyce Di Donato gave the audience a close look at Akhnaten’s
robe during one of her intermission interviews.
I can’t imagine the number of man-hours (or person-hours) that went into
the making of the piece.
There is also a speaking role in the opera, the ghost of
Amenhotep III.
Early into the performance I began to think of Wagner’s
term gesamtkunstwerk. Let me come at it
this way, I had not been sleeping well the last few days, still trying to
recover from jetlag from my recent trip to Hong Kong. If I had been listening to a recording of
this opera, I would have fallen asleep perhaps 30 minutes into it. Instead I was awake for the whole thing
(lasted over 3 ½ hours with intermssions), and must attribute that to the
visual effects.
The compliment is also a put down. With Glass the listener must be patient, the
music seems to get repeated over and over, and slowly (sometimes imperceptibly)
moves from place to place. All that
became abundantly clear with the overture (which is helpfully labelled
“prologue” on screen). To keep things
interesting, various patterns were projected onto the screen (naturally they
moved slowly.)
One thing about Glass’s vocal music, it is easy to get
the pitch, there are no large interval jumps, and the music is for the most
part tonal.
I had seen Constanzo twice, once as Prospero in
“Enchanted Island,” and more recently in “Glass Handel” about a year ago. Generally my comments were positive. As the lead in this opera, however, he was
not quite up to the task. Even in a
movie version where sound tracks can be engineered, he voice came across as weak
on many occasions. The rendition of “the
hymn” (probably based on Psalm 104) was at best adequate. I was surprised at how often he had to
breathe.
Bridges and Larusdottir as Nefertiti and Queen Tye did
fine. But most of the time they were
singing simple words and – again – with no large interval jumps.
Zachary James is a bona fide opera singer, but has only a
speaking role, albeit a rather substantial one.
He certainly made great use of this opportunity, providing good
commentary on what is happening on stage.
He is also quite strong, having to carry Akhnaten’s body to the altar
towards the end of the opera.
That the violins are missing never occurred to me during
the opera. In hindsight one could argue
indeed the sound was warmer, and darker, but I am sure that effect can still be
achieved with the inclusion of violins.
During one of the intermission interviews, one of the
priests said he had to do a particular “word” 33 times against a chorus. Well, it didn’t sound nearly as interesting when
I heard it (admittedly I didn’t recognize the passage he was referencing until
about 8 words in.)
As to the costumes, where do I start? Take the most prominent piece, worn by the
Pharaoh. A search of the web returns
many images of how a pharaoh is garbed, and nothing there came close. It certainly was presented as a big deal. Constanzo was hidden behind some wardrobe until
the end of the first act. He had only “loin
clothes” on when unveiled, and there was an elaborate sequence to get him
dressed in this robe. I can’t imagine
the effort that went into the design and making of the robe, but it certainly
made no sense, and didn’t add anything to the story or the authenticity of the
costumes. Okay if the Met had tons of money
to throw away, but I thought it didn’t. What
are these baby faces sewn into the robe?
They make me think of Louis XIV. The
intermission interview also led me to believe that everything about the costume
would make sense at the end. At the end
the young King Tut basically was robed in a smaller version of the robe, so I
wasn’t blown away by how clever the whole thing was.
While Amenhotep III’s costume isn’t as ridiculous, his
wrist bands consist of watches, Rolexes I presume, as it is a sponsor. Would be okay if we want to make the opera a
comedy, and in any case the watches are not visible to most people in a live
performance anyway.
I can make similar remarks about the jugglers. Why are they put there? One could argue some drawings from that
period may show jugglers during those days, but again they add nothing to the
story. Visually they do provide some
distraction so the audience may not notice the deficiencies of other aspects of
the opera. (There, a praise and a pan.)
The Synopsis devoted many words on how Amenhotep III's body was prepared for burial, including the removal of his organs. Let's just say the macabre in me wasn't satisfied at all.
This series constitutes Karen Kamensek’s debut at the
Met. She claims Glass is fine with her
interpretation, which I don’t dispute, and that much concentration is needed, (otherwise
you may skip a whole page and no one notices it.)
Akhnaten flanked by Nefertiti (on his right) and Queen Tye. Picture from Met website.
Akhnaten died at the end of the opera, and his clothes were removed before burial clothes were wrapped around the body. So Constanzo put on the robe for the curtain call.
Karen Kamensek the conductor.
To sum up, this is an opera that probably can’t thrive on
the music and the drama alone, and throwing a lot of distraction into the production may or may not enhance the audience experience. Later
this season we will see another new production: Porgy and Bess by
Gershwin. All the shows are sold out
(although they are now putting out additional performances), I wonder how I
would react to it.
I met up with Roger H
at the Cheesequake Rest Area and then rushed to Hazlet. The theater seats about 110, the audience
numbered about 30, it was a quiet day in the entire cinema complex. I do hope they continue to have these shows
