Pacifists and Activists

After the success of Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha was a logical next step for Philip Glass. Although the score continued to mine a similar arpeggiated dream-world, he replaced the electric organs with the strings and woodwinds of a more conventional orchestra, and moved from numbers and solfège syllables to an actual sung text, albeit in the highly vocalic Sanskrit language. Satyagraha even has something close to a plot: it illustrates Mohandas Gandhi’s awakening to the power of non-violent resistance through a series of impressionistic, non-chronological vignettes. If it is still a long way from conventional opera, its extraordinary meditative passages offer a tremendous gift to any director interested in exploring the intersection of abstract ritual and narrative drama.

The new production at the Komische Oper – a co-production with…