Akhnaten - Philip Glass - English National Opera

Akhnaten - Philip Glass - English National Opera

David Buchler
English National Opera

Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, written in 1983, is an opera in three Acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhnaten.  The opera was commissioned and premiered in Stuttgart Germany and the American premiere was directed a year later in Houston by the Australian Opera Director, David Freeman.  The English premiere was staged in 1985 by ENO, who now stage its new 2016 production in partnership with the LA Opera.  The Egyptian and Hebrew texts are all taken from original sources, as indeed is the juggling whose source had been discovered as graffiti on the wall in an Egyptian tomb.

Cyprus High Commission – St Martin’s Embassy & Cultural Institute Series – St Martin-in-the-Fields

Cyprus High Commission – St Martin’s Embassy & Cultural Institute Series – St Martin-in-the-Fields

David Buchler

Cyprus is a small country with a long history and incredibly rich culture.  The majority of Cyprus is still under Greek Cypriot control, although there is a large part of the island’s cultural heritage currently under Turkish occupation since July 1974.  Civilisation in Cyprus goes back 10,000 years and there are indeed still signs of pre-historic permanent settlements.  Cyprus has had a close relationship for more than two centuries with Greece, particularly its influences.  During the Byzantine period there was also a strong Roman influence. The island was owned and controlled by the Latin state of Jerusalem, the Venetians, the Ottomans and the British and it wasn’t until 1959 that Archbishop Makarios was elected the first President of the Republic of Cyprus.  As a result of the Turkish invasion in 1974, Lefkosia (formerly Nicosia) is currently the only divided capital in the world.  

Un Ballo in Maschera – Verdi – Israeli Opera – Tel Aviv Israel

Un Ballo in Maschera – Verdi – Israeli Opera – Tel Aviv Israel

David Buchler
Israeli Opera

Most major and minor cities in Germany have an opera house that becomes the focal point of artistic development in the community.  Some cities in Germany are themselves bigger than the whole country of Israel, which has a population of 6.5m of which 2.5m are Arab and 4.5m Jewish.  Israel itself has its own Opera House, with the current Arts Centre being opened in 1994 after the new Israeli Opera was established in 1985.

Katya Kabanova – Janacek – Royal Opera House

Katya Kabanova – Janacek – Royal Opera House

David Buchler
Royal Opera House

Born in 1854, Leos Janacek was a Czech Composer whose music was inspired by Slavic folk music and contemporaries such as Dvorak.  Although his first opera, Jenufa (dedicated to the memory of his young daughter) was first performed in 1904 in the city of Brno, it wasn’t until a revised version of Jenufa was performed in Prague in 1916 that Janacek first received great acclaim - at the age of 62.  A year later he met a young married woman (38 years his junior), who inspired him for the remaining years of his life, until his death in 1928.