Blowing up time
Theater Basel presents the Swiss premiere of the 1980 opera "Satyagraha" by Philip Glass, a co-production with the Komische Oper Berlin and the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen. The libretto in Sanskrit is based on verses from the ancient Indian epic "Bhagavad Gita".
Time to ponder: This opera, which indulges in softness, lasts just under three hours. The minimalist circling of the music lulls the listener to sleep. No dissonances disturb, no breaks, certainly no abysses. Dancers move on the fluffy carpet of the American composer Philip Glass. They take up the circling gesture: Arms embody waves, feet dart sometimes lithely, sometimes acrobatically across the empty, tilt-forward stage of Theater Basel.
There is no plot in the strict sense. Glass compared his opera, composed in 1980 Satyagraha with a photo album. It could also be called a "life in three pictures". It provides insights into decisive, early biographical stages of the Indian resistance fighter Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, later known as Mahatma Gandhi: his life in South Africa is shown on stage, the Newcastle protest march in 1913 and his life on the cooperatively organized Tolstoy farm.
Immerse or resist
