Akhnaten
Behold, the power of the Pharaoh.
Phelim McDermott’s Olivier award-winning production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten returns to the ENO, following sell-out runs at the London Coliseum.
Akhnaten is a mesmerising work whose text draws on ancient hymns, prayers and inscriptions sung in their original Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian. The opera’s unique mood transports audiences to this ancient world through Glass’s music (conducted by the returning Karen Kamensek) that combines his characteristic, minimalist voice with stylised movement, choreographed juggling and breathtaking costumes to visualise the rhythms of his score.
A mesmerising spectacle, Akhnaten tells the story of one of the world’s most influential figures – the Pharaoh Akhnaten, the first Pharaoh to switch from worshipping a pantheon of gods to just one: the Sun.
Award-winning countertenor, Anthony Roth Costanzo, returns to the title role, alongside Chrystal E. Williams as Nefertiti, Haegee Lee as Queen Tye, and Zachary James returning to the role of Scribe.
The true sun god returns to the London Coliseum in 2023 – book your opera tickets now for Philip Glass’s Akhnaten.
Co-production with LA Opera. Collaboration with Improbable.
We would like to acknowledge our thanks to The Barnaud-Bettle Family for their generous philanthropic support of the production as Role Production Supporter, in support of Anthony Roth Costanzo.
'Visually extraordinary staging'
'Sensuous and glittering'
'This is pure magic’
'A mesmerising spectacle'
