akhnaten
2002

Akhnaten, an opera by Philip Glass, co-produced by Leigh Warren & Dancers and State Opera of South Australia. Akhnaten was directed and choreographed by Leigh Warren.

Sung in Egyptian, Hebrew and English, with English narration, the work combines dance, chorus, soloists and musicians.

Leigh said "I wanted to avoid simply perpetuating traditional operatic ways of movement and behaviour, deriving from past centuries. Our solution was to treat the performing space as a combination of exhibition, library and museum. The audience and the chorus are, in a sense, visitors to an exhibition hall."

The result is an environment that houses the performers and embraces the audience in an exciting fusion of voice, movement and design. Each shift of the clear perspex tables redefines the space. They serve as platforms for changes of level and as sarcophagi in the funeral and final resting places for the lost royal family of Akhnaten.