ART/ARCHITECTURE; Looking at Ancient Egypt, Seeing Modern America (original) (raw)
Movies|ART/ARCHITECTURE; Looking at Ancient Egypt, Seeing Modern America
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ART/ARCHITECTURE
- Nov. 14, 1999
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November 14, 1999
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Section 2, Page
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''EGYPT IN BOSTON'' is what five of this city's cultural institutions call their thematic collaboration this year, described as a pioneering venture into ''cultural tourism'' and ''an unprecedented look at Egyptian culture.''
''Pharaohs of the Sun: Ikhnaton, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen,'' at the Museum of Fine Arts, provides the focus. The result is an instructive pastiche, one that provides fewer clues to ancient Egypt than to the tastes and preoccupations of contemporary America.
The Boston Lyric Opera, whose general director, Janice Mancini del Sesto, instigated the collaboration, will perform ''Aida'' by Verdi, ''Akhnaten'' by Philip Glass (in a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago) and ''The Magic Flute'' by Mozart. The Boston Ballet will stage a newly choreographed ''Cleopatra'' and the Museum of Science is showing the IMAX film ''Mysteries of Egypt'' as well as presenting ''Virtual Egypt,'' a show that provides computer tours of archaeological sites and tombs.
As a marketing device, Egypt is as old as its mummies; the exportation of its gods and their physical embodiments as works of art has been a thriving industry for a couple of millenniums. Even for the ancient Greeks, Egypt's art, myths and history stretched back into infinite generations, and despite the 18th century's pursuit of rationality, Egypt retained its mystical aura; entertainments with Egyptian themes constituted almost a genre in themselves.
Both ''Flute'' and ''Aida'' continue to influence our perceptions of ancient Egypt, keeping alive 18th- and 19th-century notions of that civilization, while ''Akhnaten'' addresses 20th-century preoccupations.
''In 'The Magic Flute,' Mozart invented a religion with an Egyptian flair,'' says Robert Levin, the Dwight P. Robinson Jr. professor of humanities at Harvard. ''It was designed as a smoke screen for the ideas of freemasonry, with its radical notions of political equality. Mozart's agenda included magic and low comedy, along with a sophisticated philosophical program. It was intended to cross class barriers, and it did.''
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