Philip Glass's Satyagraha, the Inspirational Opera Based on the Life of Gandhi, Exploring His Enduring Philosophy of Non-Violent Resistance, to Air on THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 25 at 12 p.m. on PBS

The first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's lauded staging features the original cast of the opera's Met premiere

NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Philip Glass's inspirational opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit for "truth force"), in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's innovative 2008 production, airs on THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 25 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). In New York, THIRTEEN will premiere the program Thursday, March 22 at 8:30 p.m. with an encore presentation Sunday, March 25 at 12:30 p.m.

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The opera, which earned exceptional praise in its Met premiere, is based on Mahatma Gandhi's early life in South Africa, where he developed the revolutionary philosophy of non-violent resistance that continues to be used in protests around the world. "Almost all the techniques of protest—now the common currency of contemporary political life—were invented and perfected by Gandhi during his South Africa years," Glass has said.

The program was originally seen live in movie theaters on November 19 as part of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD series, which transmits live performances to more than 1700 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 54 countries around the world.

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.

McDermott and Crouch's production uses a combination of large-scale puppetry, sets made of materials such as corrugated metal and newspaper, and projected supertitles to immerse the viewer in Glass's poetic world. Conductor Dante Anzolini leads a cast that features Richard Croft, reprising his critically acclaimed interpretation of Gandhi.

Satyagraha is divided into three acts, each inspired by a major historical figure: the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, and the American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The plot of the opera follows Gandhi through his formative years as a young attorney in South Africa, where his firsthand experience of racial inequality inspired him to create the movement of non-violent resistance that would define his life and work. The Sanskrit libretto, by Glass and Constance DeJong, is taken from the Bhaghavad Gita. Croft is joined by two of the other leads of the Met premiere production, Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlesen and Alfred Walker as Parsi Rustomji, and Kim Josephson in the role of Mr. Kallenbach.

The opera is the second part of Glass's famous trilogy of operas about important historical figures, which also includes Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (1983). Satyagraha is the second Glass opera to be performed at the Met, following The Voyage, a Met commission that premiered in 1992.

Conductor Anzolini is a leading interpreter of Glass's work; in addition to the Met premiere of this opera, he has conducted critically acclaimed performances of The White Raven in Lisbon and at the Lincoln Center Festival; Symphony No. 5 in Brussels and at the Kennedy Center; Akhnaten at Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, France; and the European premiere of Symphony No. 8 with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in Austria. 

In addition to singing the central role of Gandhi in the Met premiere of Satyagraha, Croft has sung numerous roles at the Met, including Loge in the 2010 new production premiere of Das Rheingold, Cassio in Otello, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Durkin, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, debuted in the Met premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly in 2002 and most recently sang Norina in Don Pasquale during the 2010-11 season. Walker's Met repertory includes roles in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mktsensk, Ravel's L'enfant et Les Sortileges, and the Met premiere of Busoni's Doktor Faust. Kim Josephson's 244 performances with the Met have included the new production premieres of La Fanciulla del West, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Otello, Andrea Chenier, and Carmen, and the Met premieres of Strauss's Capriccio and Bolcom's A View from the Bridge.

Bass-baritone Eric Owens hosts. Barbara Willis Sweete directs the telecast.

Great Performances is funded by the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America's luxury home builder®. 

Visit Great Performances online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information on this and other Great Performances programs.

For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

About WNET

New York's WNET is America's flagship public media outlet, bringing quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. The parent company of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET produces such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Need to Know, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and a range of documentaries,  children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online.  Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Noah Comprende and Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJ Today and the new online newsmagazine MetroFocus.

About the Met

Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company's repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world. The Met's 2011-12 season features seven new productions, including: the world premiere of The Enchanted Island, a Baroque pastiche with an original libretto by Jeremy Sams set to the music of Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others; the Met premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena directed by David McVicar; and the final two installments of Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Maestro Levine. The first complete performances of the new Ring cycle are scheduled for April and May 2012. The season also features new productions of three repertory classics by outstanding directors—Mozart's Don Giovanni by Michael Grandage, Gounod's Faust by Des McAnuff, and Massenet's Manon by Laurent Pelly.

Building on its 81-year-old radio broadcast history—heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network—the Met uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to reach audiences around the world. The Met: Live in HD, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series of live performance transmissions to movie theaters around the world, returns for its sixth season in 2011-12. The series of 11 transmissions begins October 15 with Anna Bolena and ends with La Traviata on April 14. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes much of its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM broadcasts live performances from the Met stage three times a week during the opera season, as well; the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service offers audio recordings; and the Met presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives, including Open House dress rehearsals, a popular rush ticket program, Gallery Met, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more information, please visit: www.metopera.org.

SOURCE THIRTEEN/WNET