Satyāgraha Redux

Philip Glass

Saturday, 14 September, at 19:30–20:45

160–300 kr

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In the 1960s, composer Philip Glass was inspired by a trip to India where he learned of Gandhi’s energy and moral courage. This led to the composition of Satyāgraha (1979), a minimalist opera about justice and peace, and a spiritual leader who changed the course of history.

Civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) became the figurehead of India’s anti-colonial resistance. He encouraged his followers to protest peacefully with an attitude he named ‘satyāgraha’, meaning, in sanskrit, holding insistently to the truth. The original sanskrit libretto by Constance DeJong draws from the ancient scripture Bhagavad Gita. It builds parallels between mythological struggles from Hinduism and Gandhi's own struggles during his early years in South Africa.

This shortened version of Glass’s opera is performed by MA students from the Academy of Opera, and BA contemporary dance students from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and the sinfonietta of Norwegian Academy of Music. The projected text is developed by students from the Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, and acts as a counter-libretto to DeJong's original text. Glass’s cyclic, repetitive music blends solo voices with synthesizers, strings and woodwinds. In this special staging with dance and video, physical movements interweave with music and text in a continuous flow. Time is suspended, inviting to a meditation on Ghandi’s message, and the meaning that various forms of resistance might have today.