Two Philip Glass tracks from Akhnaten, his 1983 three-act opera, are heard on the soundtrack on Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Leviathan. The music, initially heard at the very beginning of the film, tells you right off the bat that Leviathan is not going to deliver mild-mannered escapism. A Sony Classic spokesperson told me that the two tracks are titled “Akhnaten’s Reign — Prelude,” and “The Ruins — Epilogue.” Glass’s publicist told me there are actually three tracks — “The Ruins”, “Epilogue” and “Year 1 of Akhnaten’s Reign.” Now I’m all turned around and don’t know who to believe.

The entire opera is contained on this CD.

Wiki boilerplate: “Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the pharaoh Akhenaten (a.k.a., Amenhotep IV), written by the American minimalist composer Philip Glass in 1983. Akhnaten had its world premiere on March 24, 1984 at the Stuttgart State Opera,

“According to the composer, this work is the culmination of his two other biographical operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha (about Mahatma Gandhi). These three people — Akhnaten, Einstein and Gandhi — were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived, in particular Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics.”