Philip Glass: Satyagraha, Acts 1, 2 and 3: Mixed Choir And Ensemble

The second in Glass' trilogy about men who changed the world, Satyagraha's sub-text is politics. The opera is semi-narrative in form and deals with Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa and his development ofnon-violentprotest into a political tool. (Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word meaning 'truth force'). The first two acts each contain three scenes; the last is one continuous scene. Each act is dominated by a single historic figure(non-singingrole) overlooking the action from above: the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore in Act I, the Russian author Leo Tolstoy in act II, the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in Act III