Photo: Tristram Kenton/ENO
Toby Spence and ENO Chorus
Philip Glass divides us all perhaps but there is no denying the mesmerising effect on the listener of Satyagraha, nor the impact pf Phlim McDermott's stunning production, revived this week at the London Coliseum for a third outing. And it appears to be sold out which is an excellent state of affairs. We sold out Akhnaten in Chicago all those years ago - its always good to have money in the bank as I know only too well!
Toby Spence is new to the leading role of Ghandi, and he is a more than worthy successor to the remarkable Alan Oke who was there last time. His acute intelligence and gorgeously burnished sound provide the evening with a huge additional pleasure, and he is surrounded by a first rate cast and the exceptional ENO Chorus. If you can get a ticket, go to it - but be prepared to get into the "zone"! And prepare yourself well with the excellent notes available on the ENO website. Perversely, you may think, there are no surtitles for this, one of the rare examples of an ENO production not in English!
Thursday was a big day because in addition to Satyagraha I was at the moving performance by Matthew Rose and Tom Poster of Winterreise at the V and A at lunchtime. Matthew is deeply inside this cycle after a good few years of increasingly insightful performances. So that was a totally absorbing 70 minutes which took us to another place........and to another place (of a different kind) again yesterday - that I could not manage!
I am off to Lisbon tomorrow morning quite early, for three days, then on Thursday to Izmir for nine. So good stuff coming up!
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