New releases from Joe Wilkes, Honey and the Bear, and Hannah James and Toby Kuhn
Satyagraha
ENO London Coliseum
THE English National Opera opens its season with a revival of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. A wise choice from ENO’s artistic director Anillese Miskimmon.
The opera is essentially a meditation on a theme, that of Gandhi’s time in South Africa and chiefly, the concept of Satyagraha; a Sanskrit term that loosely translates as “life force,” the idea that love, as opposed to violence, is the best way of combatting oppression.
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power


