condition (records/box): NM / NM
With original innersleeves and booklet.
The third opera in the portrait trilogy, after Einstein and Satyagraha. World premiere at the Stuttgart State Opera on 3 March 1984; the 1987 CBS recording is by the same forces, Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Paul Esswood sings the title role of the heretic pharaoh as countertenor, Milagro Vargas is Nefertiti, Maria Husmann is Queen Tye, Cornelius Hauptmann is Aye. Libretto by Glass with Shalom Goldman compiling the texts from original sources (Akkadian, Egyptian, Hebrew, with spoken English narration).
Three acts trace Akhnaten's coronation, his cult of the Aten and his fall. The orchestra includes no violins; the upper register is held by violas and woodwinds, which gives the score its characteristic burnished colour. Recorded at Karlshöhe Church and Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, with additional sessions at The Living Room in New York. Hundred-page booklet.
