SATYAGRAHA / PROGRAM / Garnier / April / 2026

Description

What influence has Gandhi had on contemporary politics? This is the question explored in Satyagraha, Philip Glass's opera (1980), the second installment in his trilogy dedicated to historical figures, alongside Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (1984). However, Satyagraha-"power of truth" in Sanskrit-is not a biopic.

This work, with its hypnotic music, blends different time periods and links each of its three acts to a key figure associated with Gandhi to better understand the origins of his political thought: Leo Tolstoy, with whom he corresponded; the poet Rabindranath Tagore, who supported him; and finally Martin Luther King, who drew inspiration from his principles of non-violence.

Satyagraha makes its debut in the Paris Opera's repertoire in a production by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, who previously staged the choreographic piece Pit there. For them, this opera "is not merely a meditation on history but a call to action and a powerful lesson that resonates even more today."