In 1988, Seattle Opera presented its first non-Wagner summer opera: Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. One of three “portrait” operas (the others being Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten) written by Glass early in his career, Satyagraha tells the story of Gandhi in South Africa and the origin of his philosophy of non-violent resistence (also known as “Satyagraha”). The libretto of this minimalist opera is drawn entirely from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Hindu devotional text. Seattle Opera’s production was designed by then-Ring designer Robert Israel.