It is safe to assume that no work Lyric Opera has presented in its 32 seasons is remotely comparable to ”Satyagraha,” the Philip Glass opera that had its first performance by a major international opera company Monday at the Civic Opera House. The piece is part political drama, part ritual, part pantomime-but, above all, it is powerful theater. At the end of the three-hour Chicago premiere the audience, clearly moved, gave the performers and composer a standing ovation.
”Satyagraha,” the second opera of a Glass trilogy dealing with great men of science, politics and religion, carries a particularly timely message and expresses that message in a musical language that is both gentle and accessible-adjectives one would hardly associate with modern opera.
On the simplest level, it concerns Mohandas K. Gandhi`s early years in South Africa, where he developed a philosophy of passive resistance
(satyagraha is an Indian word meaning truth or love combined with force) as a potent political weapon in the Indian struggle for racial equality. Glass and his librettist, Constance De Jong, drew their Sanskrit text from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Hindu scriptures, thereby adding mythic and religious overtones to their musical portrait.
The result suspends time in a luminous flow of ecstatic images and slow-motion choreography that triggers deep emotions as surely as the music. Yet because ”Satyagraha” works through what the composer calls ”a sort of transcendental realism,” one should not look for any consistent link between music, words and stage action. Glass keeps us at a philosophical distance from his subject, as much by having his opera sung in Sanskrit (whose lovely, open vowels are absorbed into the pulsing musical texture) as by his endlessly repeating rhythms. (A pity, though, that Lyric includes no translations in the program book, as Glass has forbidden the use of supertitles.)
The orchestra is only slightly unconventional, adding an electric keyboard to an ensemble of strings and woodwinds over which float chantlike solos, ensembles and choruses that may remind some listeners of Orff`s
”Carmina Burana.” The score`s kaleidoscopic subtlety of detail belies the assertion that there is less to Philip Glass than meets the ear.
The visually stunning Lyric production reunites several of the artists and the production team who were responsible for the world premiere in Rotterdam in 1980. Douglas Perry as a sympathetic, sweet-toned Gandhi and Claudia Cummings as Gandhi`s secretary head a strong ensemble. But it is the orchestra and chorus under conductor Christopher Keene, who functions as a kind of superhuman metronome, that have the most difficult material to perform. I haven`t the slightest idea how they were able to learn this music
(short of having computers implanted in their skulls), but they all are to be congratulated for bringing off an exhausting, perhaps even thankless, task. The nonspecific nature of the work`s seven scenes allows stage directors a great deal of creative freedom. I gather that David Pountney considerably revamped his original conception for Chicago; if anything, his new version might be faulted for being too busy, especially in the early scenes. Even so, Pountney`s direction, Robert Israel`s sets and Riddell`s marvelous lighting fill the stage with visual images that haunt the mind: Gandhi`s followers building their commune as the action neatly mirrors the modular process at work in Glass` music; Indians defiantly burning their registration cards and setting the night ablaze with the flames of their matches; Gandhi chanting his final benediction as the Satyagraha army looks down from the heavens.
There will always be those who find Glass` music a colossal bore, thus ignoring his larger expressive and philosophic intent in works like
”Satyagraha.” That is their loss. For ”Satyagraha” is a work of great and austere beauty, one that cannot fail to move the receptive viewer by the radiant simplicity of its means and the timelessness of its subject. Its arrival in Chicago is cause for rejoicing.
`SATYAGRAHA`
Opera in three acts by Philip Glass, vocal text by Constance De Jong, adapted from Bhagavad-Gita. Chicago premiere, presented by the Lyric Opera of Chicago Sept. 28 at the Civic Opera House. Conducted by Christopher Keene, staged by David Pountney, scenery and costumes by Robert Israel, lighting by Richard Riddell, chorus direction by Philip Morehead, choreography by Clare West. Production from Netherlands Opera, a gift of Marshall Field`s. Length of performance: 3:00. Repeat performances Thursday, Oct. 6, 9, 14, 17 and 23. Tickets $10.75 to $71.50. Phone 332-2244.
THE CAST
Mohandas K. Gandhi….. Douglas Perry
Prince Arjuna…. John Horton Murray
Lord Krishna…….. Carl Glaum
Miss Schlesen……. Claudia Cummings
Mrs. Naidoo… Joan Gibbons
Kasturbai. Clara O`Brien
Mr. Kallenbach… Patryk Wroblewski
Parsi Rustomji……. Henry Runey
Mrs. Alexander….. Pamela Laurent
