Akhnaten is an opera in three acts which was staged for the first time at the State Opera in Stuttgart in March 1984 and which, as Philip Glass (pictured)noted, «marks the culmination and the conclusion of a long period in my creative life».

«Akhnaten completes the trilogy of opera portraits that began in 1975 with Einstein on the Beach (in collaboration with Robert Wilson) and which continued in 1979 with Satyagraha». Portraits of three great men «who revolutionised the thinking and events of their day with the strength of an inner vision»: Einstein, the man of science; Ghandi (Satyagraha), the man of politics; Akhnaten (Akhenaton), the man of religion, the “monotheist”  pharaoh with whom the “Period of Light” reached its peak and concluded during the long arc of the Egyptian dynasties.

Akhnaten was written for a grand group (six soloists, choir and orchestra), with respect to the others of that decade it does not use electronics and, in line with the subject and setting, bends to the needs of the “pitched” style of singing, the rigid geometries of the so-called American “repetitive” style, which quickly became part of modern day language in all its forms. The opera presented in concerto form, with the Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro Regio di Torino will be staged for the first time in Italy for the Festival MITO on 15 September at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler. The video, directed by Luca Scarzella, will see a completely new double projection created especially for this production, based on images of archaeological finds from the Museo Egizio di Torino.