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  • "Improbable is one of the brilliant faces of British Theatre"
    The Observer

Akhnaten

Leave your homes, my people. Come see, the old order fades. A new age dawns. Behold, a new power rises. Behold, the sun.

8 Nov – 7 Dec 2019 at The Metropolitan Opera, New York

Tickets here

Akhnaten was originally created by English National Opera and LA Opera in collaboration with Improbable.

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 will transport you to the ancient world through music that combines Glass’s characteristic minimalist voice with stylised movement and choreographed juggling to visualise the rhythms of his score.

Star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is the title pharaoh, the revolutionary ruler who transformed ancient Egypt, with the striking mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in her Met debut as his wife, Nefertiti. To match the opera’s hypnotic, ritualistic music, McDermott has created an arresting vision that includes Gandini Juggling’s virtuosic company of acrobats and jugglers. Philip Glass specialist Karen Kamensek conducts in her Met debut.

‘Musically and visually mesmerising’

★★★★★ The Stage

‘Unforgettable magnificence’

★★★★ The Independent

‘A gloriously coloured eye-catching affair’

★★★★ The Guardian

English National Opera in collaboration with Improbable

Co-production with LA Opera

Creative Team of Met Opera 2019

Karen Kamensek
Conductor

Phelim McDermott
Director

Tom Pye
Set Designer

Kevin Pollard
Costume Designer

Bruno Poet
Lighting Designer

Sean Gandini
Skills Ensemble Choreographer

Cast of Met Opera 2019

Anthony Roth Costanzo
Akhnaten

J’Nai Bridges
Nefertiti

Dísella Lárusdóttir
Queen Tye

Will Liverman
Horemhab

Richard Bernstein
Aye

Aaron Blake
High Priest of Amon

Zachary James
The Scribe

  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Anthony Roth Costanzo and Emma Carrington (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Anthony Roth Costanzo, Emma Carrington and Rebecca Bottone (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Anthony Roth Costanzo (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Akhnaten rehearsals (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Anthony Roth Costanzo (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Emma Carrington (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Anthony Roth Costanzo and Zachary James (Photo by Tristram Kenton)
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton
  • Photo by Tristram Kenton




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Akhnaten at Met Opera
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Philip Glass's mesmerising opera about the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh and forms the last of Philip Glass’s trilogy of ‘portrait’ operas