Opera brings Akhnaten to IU, Indy stages

Opening over the land of ancient Egypt, the audience will be introduced Friday to the story of Akhnaten, the pharaoh who worshipped the sun.

After two to three months of auditioning, costume and set designing and acting lessons, Friday will bring the debut of the IU Opera “Akhnaten,” at 8 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center. It is also performed in Bloomington on Saturday and March 1 and 2 before traveling to Indianapolis for two more performances.

As the first production between the IU Opera Theater and Indianapolis Opera, the production of Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten” will also be performed at the Clowes Memorial Hall on the Butler University campus March 8 and 9.

Akhnaten is the first Philip Glass production. Glass is one of the most influential American composers of the late 20th century.

Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity at Jacobs School of Music, said Glass is a minimalist composer with a very particular style of music.

“He creates a soundscape that creates a completely new sense of time with the music,” he said. “You just have give in to it. It is quite an experience.”

The opera is about the story of the Egyptian pharaoh, Akhnaten. The young pharaoh corrupts the current method of religion of worshipping animals and instead selects the sun God, Aten as the only form of worship in Egypt. The opera uses acting, choreography and singing, a mixture of multiple languages, to transform the
theater into the land and story of Egypt. The opera consists of three acts, telling the true story of a pharaoh named Akhnaten.

Speaking on behalf of the production, Barker names the stage and set director as two pertinent aspects of the success of the performance.

Candace Evans, a former New Yorker, now living in Texas, was called by the IU Opera production staff to return to Bloomington for the opera. The actors, Nicholas Tamagna, playing Akhnaten, and Laura Thoreson, are also professionals returning to a college production.

Working last year as the stage director for the performance, “Candide,” Evans considers the IU Opera no different than the big houses she works with in Texas, except that students here are nicer.

“I love it here in Bloomington,” she said. “It is an incredible facility.”

Evans said it is amazing the University is willing to put on such an expensive show.
“Akhnaten” is a large production, composed of a double cast and more than 30 people on the production/artistic staff. For each planned performance, the IU Opera usually selects outside professionals to help in the chosen work. Though usually IU alumni, the staff asked Evans, Douglass Fitch, set director and Todd Hensley, the lighting director to add their expertise to the college performance.

Because of the double cast, the dress rehearsal was the turn of actor, Tamagna. Switching off between shows will be his co-star, Brennan Hall, a Jacobs School of Music student.

Before beginning the construction of the work, both directors sit down to listen to the music.

Evans, who is in charge of everything visual in the entire show, said she chooses how to use the music to help paint the picture of the show.

“I listen, listen, listen, look at the text and then decide how to show it to the audience,” she said. “It is my job is to decode everything so you (the audience) know what is happening and it is understandable the first time.”

Fitch, a designer living in New York, was also requested by IU to work on this production. He said after listening to the music, he was able to write the storyboard in an hour and a half, and get a clear idea of the designs in the next two to three days.

“The music is cyclical, looping,” he said.

Describing the way the opera is a transformation, he designed the pieces to be in continuous motion, opening and closing the doors of the horizon, and bordering the edge of the stage with a flowing river over the land.

Fitch worked to create a set that could transform from hard and dark materials to light ones, a metaphor he said of the change between the world of Akhnaten’s father and the time he takes over as ruler.

“It is extraordinary music,” Fitch said. “The different languages wash over you, give you a feeling you have to trust.”

Evans said the difficulty of operas, particularly one of such ancient tales, like “Akhnaten,” is translating the music, acting and singing into a language the audience will understand.

But Fitch said he believes it is important the audience comes to the performance, without knowing everything.

“It is the feeling of getting to know something about the story,” he said. “It is important that people do not know, to get the experience.”

Barker said the music of the opera gives the audience the complete story of “Akhnaten” as the pharaoh he was, his life and how it affects us today.

“Music is the pathway to our past, slowing life down and taking us back,” he said.