Glazial musings

[sawyl]

Writing in today's Observer, Anthony Holden reviews ENO's presentation of Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha. While impressed with the overall performance, he doesn't seem to impressed with the actual music. At one point he notes:

Glass's Einstein on the Beach, in which he would prefer his music to be regarded simply as an adornment to the 'concept' of director Robert Wilson, lasts five hours, during which, says Wilson, the audience should be free to wander in and out at will. If only that were true of Satyagraha.

Strangely, this is exactly what my pater did when he caught a performance at San Francisco opera in the early 80s. He and some friends had managed to get some freebee tickets from somewhere and went along without any real knowledge of what they were going to see. Although they made a decent effort to get into the spirit of things, they decided at the first interval that they really couldn't cope with any more singing in Sanskrit and went to a restaurant instead.

I'd call them philistines, but I suspect I'd react in the same way in same circumstances. Despite liking Glass's music, I think it's at its best when supporting a film — his score to Candyman gives the movie a whole extra level of menace.