Philip Glass
Akhnaten

Stage Director Set/Costume Designer Conductor Producer Video Concept

About

West Coast Premiere

For LBO’s artistic and general director, Andreas Mitisek, “Akhnaten” needed “a totally different approach” than that of a regular opera. “It’s a highly stylized work, as Egyptian art was,” Mitisek said. “There is metaphorical imagery that you can interpret as being related to Egypt, but the further you stay away from being too literal, the more you can portray the timeless meaning of the story.” –– Jewish Journal 

Reviews

Time to recognize that this company, rejuvenated by Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek, has become the place for innovative, original and, yes, big productions that Los Angeles Opera, now its only rival, cannot or will not equal.

The result is a masterpiece of minimalism in design and in music, with the music played with an intensity and passion that makes the sensuous, repeated patterns full of deeply felt meaning. Long Beach Opera has produced a winner, a serious production that will be long remembered.

Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten” yet another exciting success for Long Beach Opera...[the] superlative creative leadership of Andrea Mitisek, whom, it seems, is increasingly impossible to over praise. He is conductor, production designer and stage director, and it would be difficult to claim he handled one department less well than another.

Andreas Mitisek (designer, director, conductor and artistic director) is probably the hardest working man in American opera, outside of Placido Domingo. His reading of the score with Glass’s unusual pit ensemble was heartfelt, his tempos well chosen. Mitisek’s staging and Brodie’s choreography is likewise slow, but goal-oriented.

Credits

Photos

Long Beach Opera 2011