The scene presents the funeral of Akhnaten's father, Amenhotep III. As the starting point of the opera, it represents the historical moment immediately before the "Amarna period" or the reign of Akhnaten and depicts the society in which the reforms of Akhnaten (reforms which appeared so extreme that they can be called revolutionary) took place. The action of the scene centers on the funeral rites of the New Empire of the 18th Dynasty. It is dominated by the Amon priests and appears as ritual of extraordinary traditional character drawn from The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The funeral cortege enters followed by a small body of Amon priests who in turn are led by Aye (father of Nefertiti, advisor to the recently dead pharaoh, and the Pharaoh to be). Text: Sung in Egyptian by the Funeral Chorus (from Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead) I added the lyrics in Egyptian with translations, taken from Philip Glass's web site (http://www.glasspages.org/akhnaten.html#libretto). I had to place them at the top left since the bottom center already had some subtitles. Cast (This was the Feb 23, 2013 performance.): Akhnaten: Nicholas Tamagna Queen Tye: Olivia Savage Nefertiti: Sarah Ballman Horemhab: Jeremy Johnson Aye: Jason Eck Amon: Lorenzo Garcia Narrator: Ben Abbott All rights belong to the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. See also: Hymn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWdIzA1SuC0 The Temple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgPciwT9E9o The WIndow of Appearances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ouiyjJ9LVU