#Akhnaten

[scrozac]

MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!! and some pieces of lore if you want to know what's going on…

people in their region (inspired by our south regions like Africa, South America and Australia) consider abilities to be manifestations of divine power and, although they respect such individuals, they fear them and believe that they have no place among ordinary people, so they drive them out of their settlements so that they can fulfill their duty — to protect ordinary people. our main character, Addy, also turned out to be a girl with abilities — she was blessed with the power of the vampire Adze. although she did nothing wrong, she was sent to supposedly protect their world. but she decided to travel the continent in search of herself and other people, to prove that she is also human and abilities do not take away her humanity.

Yara is her first friend, she is really funny girl, even tho in sleep she sometimes TOTALLY ON ACCIDENT licks Addy's legs… anyway they are really good friends!

Xipe-Totec is some kind of a villain, but she is actually nice, just really misunderstood. she is gonna have really sad story, while also acting as silly one. anyway, she tries her best!

there is also a girl named Nyikang, but i'm still working on her design… all i can tell you for now is that she is kinda mean, but she'll do everything to protect people around her…

the last one is Akhnaten, DJ girl, who makes «divine» rhytms by using the power of divine solar disk Aten.

[doyouknowthisopera]

[jone-slugger]

I'm taking a break from my trekposting so that I can recommend this opera I stumbled upon yesterday: Akhnaten, by Philip Glass. It's sung in ancient Egyptian, Akkadian and Hebrew. There are parts taken from the Book of the Dead.

I don't know; it just blew my mind. There was something I found profoundly moving from listening to a song about an Egyptian pharaoh in ancient Egyptian.

[bruitmoderniste]

DAMN Glass' Akhnaten is so fucking METAL 🤟

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

fav opera composed in the last 50 years?

this is probably gonna be a basic-ass answer, but…akhnaten, maybe?

as earlier mentioned, however, innocence scarred me for life in the best way

[chrysocomae]

Watch "Philip Glass - Akhnaten - The Window of Appearances" on YouTube

bro...

[aschenblumen]

Philip Glass, Akhnaten (Escena 4: Hymn to the Sun). Karen Kamensek, directora Anthony Roth Constanzo, contratenor

[swankifyed]

Holy fuck what an omega banger

"Open are the double doors of the horizon

Unlocked are its bolts"

[thewidowstanton]

The Widow's Best of 2023

Jane Hobson 2023: Following such a desperate year for so many in the world this quotation by Nietzsche seems pertinent. "We have art in order not to die of the truth." So, in an effort to uplift whoever might read this, here's a somewhat curtailed list of a few of our favourite things we've seen this year. It wasn't the hottest time for live shows; we walked out of five! One every few years, maybe, but five! Disappointing. However we still managed to find some wonderful things, not all of them new. Let's begin with…

MOST SPECTACULAR: Phelim McDermott's Akhnaten at the London Coliseum. We'd been asked so many times: "Have you seen Akhnaten?" No, we hadn't but now we have and, OK, it's a Philip Glass opera (pictured above and below) but really, with a set by Tom Pye and costumes by Kevin Pollard it's a full-on feast for the senses, with the ever-inventive Gandini Juggling, choreographed by Sean Gandini, doing what they do best.

Jane Hobson BEST CIRCUS SHOW: Cirque Le Roux's thrilling and ambitious Entre Chiens et Louves – staged at Le Bon Marché department store in Paris (take note Selfridges) – took our breath away even without the sublime Lolita Costet in the cast; and Circa's Humans II at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre.

COMPANY TO WATCH: Hoops Désolé! A “crazy” six-strong troupe of artists drawn from the circus school in Quebec, Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize.

Emma Kauldhar BEST DANCE: Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works at London’s Royal Opera House, with the mesmerising Alessandra Ferri, who at 59 was the same age as Virginia Woolf when she died. Another dancer with astonishing longevity is the Spanish Lucía Lacarra, now 48, who appeared in the Ballet Icons Gala at the London Coliseum.

BEST SHOWBIZ MEMOIR: Walking Through Walls by performance artist Marina Abramović; Do It For Your Mum by Roy Wilkinson, then manager of his brothers' band British Sea Power.

MOST TERRIFYING: He's done some daring things in his time and on World Circus Day Hungarian high-wire artist Laci Simet performed a sensational walk across the River Danube – 40 metres up in the wind – with only a balance pole to keep him safe.

BEST FILM: German film Afire or Roter Himmel by Christian Petzold (he’ll never let you down); Babak Jalali’s Fremont, set in a fortune cookie factory; and the Mexican film The Empty Hours directed by Aarón Fernández.

BEST ARCHIVE PIC: Josephine Baker and Dalida at L’Olympia music hall in Paris in 1968. A legendary pair!

LONGEST-SERVING FEMALE DJ: Texan Mary McCoy, who at 85 has been on the air for almost 72 years, and entered the Guinness Book of Records.

BEST DESERT ISLAND DISCS CASTAWAY: Actor/comedian/writer and so on, Adrian Edmondson; snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan.

MOST INSPIRING: The Maricarmen dance school in Chorrillos, south of Lima, in Peru, run by retired dancer Maria del Carmen Silva, offers free classes to girls of all abilities from low-income areas.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Never Be a Punching Bag for Nobody by indie rock musician Naomi Yang; My Indiana Muse, in which artist Robert Townsend discovers his Kodachrome muse, Helen.

FOND FAREWELL: Actor David McCallum, who, as The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s Illya Kuryakin was an enduring heartthrob for a certain generation of girls and women. Closer to home the UK lost its leading circus director, Phillip Gandey (above), at 67, whose shows – including Cirque Surreal, The Chinese State Circus and The Lady Boys of Bangkok – were always far and away the most creative and exciting; and The Circus of Horrors – a show I reviewed more times than any other, except perhaps Cirque du Soleil – lost its co-creator and frontman, Doktor Haze (below) at 66. Along with Gerry Cottle, they were notable as two of the nicest circus men I met during my reviewing years, and are greatly missed.

LAST WORD: It wouldn't be a Widow Stanton 'Best of' without some showgirls. This picture was taken by the Argentinian photographer Luisita Escarria, who with her sister Chela, documented all the artists appearing in revues in Buenos Aires from 1958 to 2009. Their story and wondrous archive might have been lost had it not been rescued by filmmakers Sol Miraglia and Hugo Manso. Their documentary Foto Estudio Luisita will warm your heart… and fortunately both the sisters lived long enough to see it.

Compiled by Liz Arratoon

[alwayswiselight]

Last night I indulged in Philip Glass' opera Akhnaten. It took me years to fall in love with this piece. When I was young and stupid, it all had to be tuneful and lushly orchestrated. I'm so grateful to have matured regarding my musical taste among other things.

Akhnaten is more of an oratorio set to minimalist music rather than a traditional opera. Of course, it deals with the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep IV who changed his name to Akhnaten to honor the single god that he worshipped which was Aten the sun's disc. The text above comes from an inscription on the foot of the anthropoid coffin in which the presumed mummy of Akhnaten was found. This restored version of the prayer is spoken twice by the narrator in this opera. I find it one of the most beautiful expressions of faith I've ever encountered.

[sforzesco]

Do you know the opera Akhnaten?!

THERE'S AN OPERA????

[jawbonejoe]

Me: Opera existing in the cultural zeitgeist as unmissable for snooty intellectuals is so silly

Me: *barreling through the Kennedy Center hurling ushers and rich men away from me* WHERE ARE THE TICKETS FOR PHILIP GLASS’S AKHNATEN?! WHERE ARE THEY AT?!?!?

[transorbitalperegrine]

the thing about me is i fuckign LOVE live music but i get overstimulated SO easily which essentially ends up meaning the only music i ever hear live is classical which makes me feel like a prat and also about 50% of it sucks absolute ass

[sdws]

FIREBIRD.

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major

Philip Glass, Hymn to the Sun from: Akhnaten 

Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird

Anders Hillborg, Liquid Marble 

Jean Sibelius, The Swan of Tuonela

En collaboration avec l'ONDRAF, le Belgian National Orchestra organise FIREBIRD. Ce concert inédit, qui fait le lien entre les arts visuels et la musique, s'agit d'une réflexion poétique sur notre société de consommation, notre gestion de l'énergie nucléaire et les défis liés à l'élimination des déchets nucléaires. Quatre œuvres musicales du XXe siècle servent de point de départ aux images vidéo de la jeune artiste belge Eva L'Hoest. À travers son travail visuel, elle entame un dialogue avec des compositions de Glass, Stravinsky, Hillborg et Sibelius.

Plus que jamais, le débat sur l'énergie est animé aujourd'hui. Outre la question de savoir comment nous allons produire de l'électricité à un prix abordable à l'avenir, nous devons également faire face au passé. Après tout, notre utilisation de l'énergie nucléaire a produit des déchets radioactifs qui doivent être récupérés. L'ONDRAF est l'institution nationale chargée de protéger en toute sécurité les matières radioactives du monde extérieur, pendant des dizaines de milliers, voire des centaines de milliers d'années. L’on a du mal à se représenter un tel horizon temporel (les scientifiques parlent de « deep time »). Où en sera l’humanité dans quelques millénaires ? Y aura-t-il encore des êtres humains ? À quoi ressembleront-ils ? Comment garantir jusque-là la transmission des informations sur les sites de stockage ? À l’occasion du 40e anniversaire de l’ONDRAF, le Belgian National Orchestra apporte avec le spectacle FIREBIRD une contribution artistique au débat sur le stockage des déchets radioactifs.   Quatre œuvres musicales du XXe siècle sont le point de départ de FIREBIRD, un croisement audacieux entre les arts visuels et la musique classique. Le chef principal Antony Hermus ouvre la soirée avec Hymn to the Sun, un aria de l’opéra Akhnaten du compositeur minimaliste américain Philip Glass. Toujours sous la direction d’Antony Hermus, l’orchestre joue ensuite la Suite de l’Oiseau de feu de Stravinsky, une des œuvres les plus impressionnantes du compositeur russe. Après cela, place à Liquid Marble, du compositeur suédois Anders Hillborg, avant que le poème symphonique Le cygne de Tuonela de Sibelius nous plonge dans une ambiance totalement différente. Ces quatre chefs-d'œuvre sont le point de départ des images vidéo d'Eva L'Hoest. Les images vidéo sont projetées en grand sur un écran spécial au-dessus de l'orchestre et dialoguent avec l'événement orchestral. L’Adagio de la Symphonie n°10 de Mahler sera proposé par l’orchestre en guise de prélude à ce concert scénique.

[chrysocomae]

Watch "Akhnaten - Funeral of Amenhotep III" on YouTube

I waaaaaant the full show. I'm obsessed.