Satyagraha
Good news:
Philip Glass’s landmark 1980 work, set to text from the ancient Sanskrit scripture the Bhagavad Gita, is a moving account of Mahatma Gandhi’s formative experiences in South Africa, which transformed him into a great leader. For the opera’s Met premiere, director Phelim McDermott and designer Julian Crouch (artistic directors of London’s provocative Improbable theater company) use adventurous, improvisational puppetry, achieved by a brilliant team of aerialists, to illuminate this formative period in Gandhi’s life and work. Tenor Richard Croft (pictured) brings his crystalline timbre and musical finesse to Glass’s gently unfolding, chant-like music.
http://eventful.com/events/E0-001-004494970-2
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An opera basic on Sanskrit Bhagavad-Gita.
The bad thing is, British opera composers are mostly bad,
Purcell is an exception.
- posted on 04/20/2008
xw wrote:
Satyagraha
昨天看了这部歌剧，好三场既古老又现代的Meditations.
Glass的音乐其实很简单，chanting，印度风？盘旋缠绕，久不绝，有迷幻味。
背景中有托尔斯泰，泰戈尔，还有金。
唱词用的是梵语，择于《薄伽梵歌》中的一些片断。
http://www.yidian.org/viewthread.php?tid=6397&fpage=1&highlight=%B1%A1%D9%A4%E8%F3%B8%E8 http://www.yidian.org/viewthread.php?tid=6607&fpage=1&highlight=%B1%A1%D9%A4%E8%F3%B8%E8
Satyagraha梵语“有力的真理”，指甘地在南非发起的非暴力不合作。
就该说这是现代歌剧中既前卫，又经典的作品。
Philip Glass:
http://www.philipglass.com/music/compositions/satyagraha.php
Stagebill提到Dafur, Kenya, and Tibet.
- posted on 04/20/2008
Synopsis
ACT I (TOLSTOY). Scene 1. The Kuru Field of Justice A great battle is impending between two royal families, the Kuruvas and the Pandavas. At a signal from the king, the trumpeter blows his conch, signaling to the waiting armies assembled on the sacred plain. Warriors and chieftains blow their battle shells announcing their readiness to fight. Seeing the battle set, Prince Arjuna realizes that his relatives and friends fight on both sides. Filled with compassion, he speaks to Lord Krishna and asks him for guidance. Krishna instructs him to be wise in matters of death and duty: “Hold pleasure and pain, profit and loss, victory and defeat to be the same: then brace yourself for the fight. So will you bring no evil on yourself.” Gandhi enters and draws a parallel between the mythic confrontation and the present one.
Scene 2. Tolstoy Farm (1910) Gandhi has initiated the first collective action among South Africa’s Indian residents. There are only a handful of Satyagrahis pledged to resist the Europeans’ racial discrimination. No one knows how long the struggle will last, but the Satyagrahis progress toward securing an immediate goal with the establishment of Tolstoy Farm. Here, all families live in one place, becoming members of a cooperative commonwealth, where residents are trained to live a new, simple life in harmony with each other. Everything from building to cooking to scavenging is to be done with their own hands. The building of the farm draws everyone into an active involvement with the Satyagraha ideal—“a fight on the behalf of Truth consisting chiefly in self-purification and self-reliance.” Weighing the ideas of contemplation and action, Gandhi states his view that work is preferable to idleness, provided one’s motives are freed from the taint of desire: “Between theory and practice, some talk as they were two—making a separation and a difference between them. Yet wise men know that both can be gained in applying oneself whole-heartedly to one.”
Scene 3. The Vow (1906) The British government proposes a legal amendment for complete re-registration and fingerprinting of all Indians—men, women and children. They would be required to carry resident permits at all times, police could enter homes to inspect for certificates, and offenses would be punishable by fines, jail, or deportation. The proposed Black Act becomes the occasion for a large rallying of the community around a specific issue. At a public meeting attended by more than 3,000, a resolution is drawn up stating that all will resist the Act unto death. Suddenly, the Satyagrahis have come to a turning point. The life and death terms of the resolution call for a step beyond ordinary majority vote, and all in attendance listen to the speakers explain the solemn responsibility of taking the individual pledges. Only a vow taken in the name of God will support an individual’s observance of the resolution in the face of every conceivable hardship, even if he were the only one left. “For nothing on earth resembles wisdom’s power to purify and this a man may find in time within himself, when he is perfected in spiritual exercise… If a work is done because it should be done and is enjoined by Scripture and without thought for great benefits, then that is surrender in Goodness.”
Act II “Tagor e” Scene 1. Confrontation and Rescue (1896) Gandhi has spent six months in India to inform people in his homeland of the settlers’ conditions in South Africa. Thousands of Europeans have read of his speeches and meetings in somewhat exaggerated accounts in South African newspapers, and there is a wave of opposition when Gandhi returns to Durban. Already angered by the way he has exposed events to the world, the Europeans are further enraged by Gandhi’s intention to bring back hundreds of Indian immigrants. If the government will not prevent them from landing, then the Europeans will take the law into their own hands. Growing larger in numbers and more violent in actions, the excited crowd pursues Gandhi on the long walk through town. A European supporter, the wife of the superintendent of police, opens her umbrella for Gandhi’s protection and walks by his side, leading him to safety. She declares Gandhi’s opponents fools, corrupted by pride and hypocrisy.
Scene 2. Indian Opinion (1906) The weekly publication of Indian Opinion is central to the Satyagraha movement’s activities, and the paper progressively reflects the growth of its principles. Refusing all advertisement, the publication is freed of any outside influence and becomes the mutual responsibility of those working on the paper and the readers whose subscriptions supply the only source of financial support. Indian Opinion openly diagnoses the movement’s weaknesses as a means for eradicating them. Though this keeps Gandhi’s adversaries well informed, it more importantly pursues the goal of real strength. Setting a standard with a strong internal policy, Indian Opinion informs the local and world community and becomes a powerful weapon for the struggle. At its height, there is an estimated readership of 20,000 in South Africa alone. Gandhi’s wife and his associates restate the importance of working for a cause rather than for one’s own gratification. By setting a good example, one inspires and leads others.
Scene 3. Protest (1908) Movement leaders have been sentenced to jail for refusing to leave South Africa. The community resolves to protest by filling up the jail. Getting themselves arrested for various offences, the number of Satyagrahi prisoners rises to 150 within a few days. The government proposes a settlement: if the majority of Indians undergoes voluntary registration, they will repeal the Black Act. After fulfilling their part of the bargain, the community is stunned to learn that the Black Act is to be put into effect anyway. Ready to resume the struggle, Satyagrahis issue their own ultimatum: if the government will not withdraw the act, Indians will burn their certificates and accept the consequences. On the day of the ultimatum’s expiration, Gandhi learns of the government’s refusal while conducting a prayer meeting before the burning of the registration cards. The certificates are set ablaze. Satyagraha now has its baptism of fire. Gandhi preaches about the importance of bearing no hate toward anyone: “The Lord said: Let a man feel hatred for no being, let him be friendly, compassionate; done with thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, the same in pleasure as in pain, long suffering.”
Act III “King” New Castle March (1913) With two racially discriminatory laws, the government is effectively controlling the influx of new Indian settlers and keeping the old class of indentured laborers under its thumb. Both the Three Pound Tax and the Asiatic Immigration Law are in effect as the great Indian leader, Shree Gokhale, makes a tour of South Africa and secures from the government a public promise for their repeal. The government’s breach of that promise gives Satyagraha an opportunity to include new objectives in its fight for truth and, in turn, to increase its strength in numbers. The miners in New Castle are selected to be the first drawn into the expanding struggle, and a deputation travels there, organizing a strike in sympathy with the movement. It is also decided that striking miners and their families should leave the homes provided by mine owners and join the Satyagraha army. Led by Gandhi, they march the thirty-six miles to the Transvaal border. If arrested at this check point, the army of 5,000 would flood the jails, incurring heavy expenses and difficulties for the government. If allowed to proceed to Tolstoy Farm, they would prolong the strike, conceivably drawing all of the 60,000 laborers affected by the tax law into the struggle. In either event, they would be bringing strong pressure for repeal, all within the dictates of Satyagraha. The army is instructed to stand any test without opposition, and their movements are openly announced to their adversaries—“as an effective protest against the Minister’s breach of pledge and as a pure demonstration of our distress at the loss of self-respect.”
Talking to his followers about the soul’s return to Brahma, Gandhi proclaims: “The Lord said, I have passed through many a birth and many have you, I know them all but you do not. Yet by my creative energy, I consort with Nature and come to be in time. For whenever the law of righteousness withers away and lawlessness arises, then do I generate myself on earth. I come into being age after age and take a visible shape and move a man with men for the protection of good, thrusting the evil back and setting virtue on her seat again.”
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Philip Glass对薄伽梵歌很深入，对瑜伽的修炼果然不一般。
这部歌剧也是学习梵语最好的契机。
Here is the Variety review:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936808.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
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(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation