Satyagraha ha ha ha

Seeing 'Satyagraha' performed by the ENO at the London Coliseum has resparked my love for Philip Glass's work, and I have been revisiting old friends. I'll be taking a break from revision to watch Naqoyqatsi, his cinematic masterpiece which is the closest experience to being stoned that doesn't involve being stoned. Fortunately, with a DVD the wonderful thing is that you can wander off while it plays; this you cannot do while watching an opera. Fortunately the staging by the ENO was engaging even as it unfolded, to put it politely, at a stately pace. They made good use of technology as well, including flashing the lyrics (which are in Sanskrit), on monitors mounted on the balcony of the dress circle for the chorus members. Comments overheard as we were walking out ranged from 'brilliant' to 'crushingly boring', which it can be if you were waiting for something to actually happen. But if you allow the hypnotic repetitions of the music to lull you into a trance, then a single moment of Gandhi's life, that of his politicization, is transformed into lush, symbol-laden spectacle, and three acts of beautiful, crystalline music.