Akhnaten

Phillip Glass’s haunting three-act opera Akhnaten (1984) is the first production of the new Boston Conservatory Opera under the direction of Sanford Sylvan.

Akhnaten completed Glass’s trilogy of ‘portrait’ operas that began with Einstein on the Beach, and Satyagraha. In these operas, Glass sought to portray three men (Einstein, Gandhi, and Akhnaten) who revolutionized the ideas of their respective times. The short-lived religious revolution of Akhnaten, a renegade pharaoh who introduced monotheism and monogamy to ancient Egypt, provides the story for Glass’s avant-garde work.