Rhiannon: She's conducting Akhnaten at the Met and she and Glass, go way back. Karen: I'm a bit of a Philip Glass groupie.

He's the countertenor who sang the role in Los Angeles in 2016, and he's bringing it to the Met now.Īnthony: Working on this has made me realize why people get so obsessed with ancient Egypt because now, I wear a little Horus eye around my neck and I have postcards and books and all kinds of things at home. I've asked four brainy people to help unpack this music.

There aren't any grand melodies or vocal acrobatics, it's simple, repetitive, and entrancing, a.k.a Philip Glass's thing, but there's more here than meets the ear. Now, this Aria doesn't sound like the other ones we usually talk about on the show. Right at the point where he's really established himself as a ruler, you get the only real Aria in the piece, Akhnaten's Hymn to the Sun. Over about 10 scenes, the opera shows his rise and his fall. Philip Glass writes this opera about Akhenaten. Some people think his ideas from the roots of modern religions, but more on that later. The Egyptians completely despised him for it back in the day, and even now, people argue about whether he was a visionary or really just a cult leader.

He pushed this controversial new idea, monotheism. They were polytheists and Akhenaten believed in only one God, only one, and that was the sun. Akhenaten was a pharaoh in Egypt about 3,400 years ago, and this was back when people believed in a lot of Gods. The third opera in that trilogy is about Akhenaten. They're part of a trilogy, actually, three portrait operas about revolutionary thinkers. Rhiannon: Now, I can pretty much guarantee that you've heard of Einstein, and Gandhi too, but both inspired operas by the American composer, Philip Glass. It's a sound that's been endlessly imitated, and yet, it's never been duplicated. John Schaefer: It's hard to imagine a contemporary composer who has not been influenced by Philip Glass. Rhiannon: Today, it's the Hymn to the Sun from Akhnaten by Philip Glass. Karen Kamensek: If you're like, 'Oh my gosh, I love this music, but I can't describe why,' I think it's because it might force you into a kind of meditation.'

Rhiannon: Every episode, we excavate a single Aria so we can see what's below the surface. Kara Cooney: It's the perfect storm to set up an experiment in religious change that pulls people along with it to its most bitter conclusion. Rhiannon Giddens: From WQXR in the Metropolitan Opera, this is Aria Code. Anthony Roth Costanzo: Is Akhenaten not an occult leader? Is he terrifying or is he a prophet in the best sense of the word?

La opera akhnaten