Company premiere: Philip Glass's Satyagraha
"Exquisite... a must-see magnificent production"
LA Opera’s presentation of Satyagraha by Philip Glass marked the company’s completion of the composer's “portrait trilogy” of operas about powerful thinkers who changed the world, following Einstein on the Beach (2013) and Akhnaten (2016), the first major American opera company to complete this cycle. This visually stunning production was staged by Phelim McDermott and had previously won acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera. Grant Gershon conducted, and the cast starred tenor Sean Panikkar in his LAO debut as Gandhi. Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) is inspired by Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, where he developed his groundbreaking ideas about nonviolent political resistance.
Cast
- Gandhi
- Sean Panikkar
- Miss Schlesen
- So Young Park
- Mrs. Naidoo
- Erica Petrocelli
- Kasturbai
- J'Nai Bridges
- Mr. Kallenbach
- Theo Hoffman
- Parsi Rustomji
- Morris Robinson
- Mrs. Alexander
- Niru Liu
- Lord Krishna
- Patrick Blackwell
- Prince Arjuna
- Michael J. Hawk
Creative Team
- Conductor
- Grant Gershon
- Director
- Phelim McDermott
- Scenery
- Julian Crouch
- Costumes
- Kevin Pollard
- Original Lighting
- Paule Constable
- Video Design
- 59 Productions
- Movement & Puppetry
- Rob Thirtle
- Associate Director
- Peter Relton
- Lighting
- Tony Simpson
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Sean Panikkar as Gandhi in LA Opera's 2018 production of "Satyagraha."
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Sean Panikkar as Gandhi in LA Opera's 2018 production of "Satyagraha."
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Michael J. Hawk as Prince Arjuna in LA Opera's 2018 production of "Satyagraha."
Cory WeaveA co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera, in collaboration with Improbable.
Production made possible with generous support from The Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Opera Fund and from Ceil and Michael Pulitzer. Additional support from Linda Pierce and from a consortium of generous donors to LA Opera's Contemporary Opera Initiative, chaired by Barry and Nancy Sanders. Sean Panikkar's appearance is generously underwritten by a gift from the Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Emerging Artist Program.