Phillip Glass, Akhnaten (1983)

Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur, November 2020

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During the middle of the Covid pandemic in 2020, I was contacted by Lucinda Child in regard to project that she was working on for Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur : a re-staging of Phillip Glass’ “Akhnaten.” Childs had been slated to produce, choreograph and also perform in the production, but due to both travel restrictions and health concerns, she decided to remain in her upstate home and do as much as she could remotely.

Akhnaten is one of composer Philip Glass’s three ‘portrait’ operas. The operas in the trilogy are all based around different themes and historical figures: portraits of people whose personal vision transformed the thinking of their times through the power of ideas rather than by military force. They are: Einstein on the Beach (1976), the eponymous scientist and his discoveries, particularly those of the theory of relativity and his unified field theory; Satyagraha (1980) tackles the politics around Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent protests during his time in South Africa; and Akhnaten (1983) which depicts the story of the eponymous ancient pharaoh, in his revolutionary shift away from the worship of the Egyptian pantheon.

The storytelling within the opera takes the audience through modern and ancient times in Egypt with strong aural and visual imagery and through texts drawn from ancient scripts such as The Egyptian Book of the Dead, and Satyagraha. They are sung in original languages, but linked together with the commentary of a narrator in English. This role of The Scribe or Narrator was the one that Childs was slated to perform live.

Childs devised a system that allowed her to direct, choreograph and rehearse the work remotely, but the question remained: how would the role of The Scribe be performed in her absence? Lucinda decided to create a video avatar of herself performing The Scribe that could be appear within the virtual space of the stage. This work of theatrical alchemy would be technically overseen by Etienne Guiol and BK Digital Art Co, which specializes in video and video mapping for theater, opera and dance productions.

As Lucinda and I live quite close to each other in upstate New York, we devised a plan to film the sections of The Scribe at the nearby Hudson Opera House. This material would then be incorporated into the larger whole by BK Digital Art Co.

A November 2020 production at Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur was performed without an audience and screened online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This production was produced and choreographed by Childs, who conducted rehearsals remotely. She also performed the speaking roles in the opera, which were pre-recorded and projected during the performance. The work was performed for a live audience a year later in November, 2021

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Cast

Lucinda Childs - Director

Léo Warynski - Conductor

Fabrice Di Falco - Akhnaten

Julie Robard-Gendre - Nefertiti

Patrizia Ciofi - Queen Tye

Joan Martín-Royo _ Horemhab

Frédéric Diquero - Amon

Vincent Le Texier - Aye

Lucinda Childs - The Scribe (virtual)

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Etienne Guiol — Video mapping

David Michalek - Director of the films for The Virtual Scribe