Eastman
  • About
  • Projects
  • People
  • Places
  • Calendar
  • News
  • Shop
  • FR
  • EN
  • NL
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Vimeo

Projects

  • Overview
  • On tour
  • More Projects
Eastman - Robbie Moore

Robbie Moore

Project /
Satyagraha

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter

Before Gandhi set foot on the world political stage and led the Indian independence movement as Mahatma (“great soul”), he spent his formative years in South Africa where his response to discrimination and injustice was to develop the concept of non-violent resistance under the name Satyagraha (“the power of truth”).

Those early years in Gandhi’s life inspired the American composer Philip Glass to write his opera Satyagraha. Using verses from the ancient Indian poem of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the central texts of Hinduism, and with the aid of mesmerizing, almost hypnotic music, Glass created a ritual “redemption play” about the human beings’ capacity to influence history through their own actions – irrespective of time and space. Glass emphasizes this universality by referencing three of Gandhi’s historical contemporaries, each of whom lend their names to one of the three acts:  Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore and Martin Luther King, who kept Gandhi’s teaching alive after his death. With its call to stand up bravely for justice and to think independently, Satyagraha remains, almost forty years after its celebrated world premiere in Rotterdam, a persuasive appeal for pacifism and civic courage.

Commissioned by Theater Basel, Komische Oper Berlin and Opera Vlaanderen, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created a new interpretation of Philip Glass’ three-act opera, assembling once again an intercultural team of dancers from Eastman, opera singers, Sinfonieorchester Basel and the chorus from Theater Basel, refiguring Satyagraha into an opera-ballet in which music, voice and physical movement merge and flow together. “For me singing is not separate from the body. Body and voice are one. In almost all of my works I use forms of singing, because I feel that the energy of the body is lifted even more while singing. Singing is a kind of choreography inside of the body. I find it so strong because it can reach a place where the eye is sometimes blind. Singing has the ability to trigger something in us, perhaps even in spiritual terms.” - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, 2017 

Premiere: 28 April 2017, Theater Basel - Basel (CH)

Choreography & direction
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Music composition
Philip Glass
Words
Constance DeJong
Musical direction
Jonathan Stockhammer
Set design
Henrik Ahr
Costume design
Jan-Jan Van Essche
Light design
Roland Edrich
Chorus master
Henryk Polus
Dramaturgy
Pavel B. Jiracek
Dance
Jason Kittelberger, Georgios Kotsifakis, Kazutomi 'Tsuki' Kozuki, Elias Lazaridis, Nicola Leahey, Princess Madoki, Shintaro Oue, Patrick Williams Seebacher (TwoFace), James Vu Anh Pham, Ema Yuasa
Rehearsal director/assistant choreographer
Jason Kittelberger
Live music
Rolf Romei, Cathrin Lange, Maren Favela, Andrew Murphy, Nicholas Crawley, Anna Rajah, Sofia Pavone, Karl-Heinz Brandt, Chor des Theater Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel
Second cast
Joseph Kudra, Nemo Oeghoede, Stephanie Amurao, Robbie Moore, Oscar Ramos, Stefan Cifolelli, Mirka Wagner, Karolina Gumos, Tom Erik Lie, Katarzyna Włodarczyk, Samuli Taskinen, Tomasz Wija, Timothy Oliver, Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Chor der Komischen Oper Berlin
Music counsellor
Ansi Verwey
Assistant director
Maria-Magdalena Kwaschik
Producer
Theater Basel
Co-producer
Komische Oper Berlin, Opera Vlaanderen
Last modified: 19 May 2022
Eastman - Jason Kittelberger

Jason Kittelberger

Eastman -
Eastman - Henrik Ahr

Henrik Ahr

Eastman - Nemo Oeghoede

Nemo Oeghoede

Calendar
see the calendar of all projects
15. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
17. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
19. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
21. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
23. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
25. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
28. 02. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
02. 03. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
04. 03. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
07. 03. 2023 Opera Antwerpen / Antwerpen (BE)
Eastman -
Eastman - Kazutomi 'Tsuki'  Kozuki

Kazutomi 'Tsuki' Kozuki

Eastman -
Eastman -
Eastman -
Eastman - Georgios Kotsifakis

Georgios Kotsifakis

Eastman -
Eastman -
Eastman - Stephanie Amurao

Stephanie Amurao

Eastman - James Vu Anh Pham

James Vu Anh Pham

Eastman - Princess Madoki

Princess Madoki

Eastman - Oscar Ramos

Oscar Ramos

Eastman -
  • © eastman2012
  • photo Koen Broos (unless otherwise stated)
  • website by Tentwelve

Newsletter


Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe

< back