Nothing happens fast in Satyagraha. Philip Glass’ opera (to 28 October) takes us across the globe, from India to South Africa and America, slips between centuries from ancient myth almost to modern day, but it all happens in gradual, incremental movements, music tracing and retracing shapes whose outlines morph like a cartoon strip, slowed down so you see it shift frame by frame.

Satyagraha, English National Opera
Coliseum, London

Nothing happens fast in Satyagraha. Philip Glass’ opera (to 28 October) takes us across the globe, from India to South Africa and America, slips between centuries from ancient myth almost to modern day, but it all happens in gradual, incremental movements, music tracing and retracing shapes whose outlines morph like a cartoon strip, slowed down so you see it shift frame by frame.

As a musical metaphor for the opera’s ­central theme – Satyagraha, Gandhi’s ­philosophy of non-violent protest or passive resistance – it couldn’t be clearer. As a ­dramatic language and operatic architecture, it takes some getting used to, especially when you add in an all-Sanskrit libretto, a three-hour run-time and no surtitles.

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