New York's Lincoln Center is the place to be to take in two groundbreaking works by composer Philip Glass this week. The New York Philharmonic and the Philip Glass Ensemble kick things off with two performances of his score to Godfrey Reggio's 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi in Avery Fisher Hall as the landmark film is projected on a huge screen above the stage, tonight and Thursday. The 1998 Nonesuch recording of the score, says the New York Times, conveys "the expansive pace, grand sweep and formal integrity that were the essence of both the film and the music.”

On Friday, Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) will return to the Metropolitan Opera in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s 2008 production. The opera, which earned exceptional praise in its Met premiere, is based on Mahatma Gandhi’s early life in South Africa, where he developed the revolutionary philosophy of non-violent resistance that continues to be used in protests around the world. “Almost all the techniques of protest—now the common currency of contemporary political life—were invented and perfect by Gandhi during his South Africa years,” Glass has said.

McDermott and Crouch’s production uses a combination of large-scale puppetry, sets made of materials such as corrugated metal and newspaper, and projected supertitles to immerse the viewer in Glass’s poetic world. Conductor Dante Anzolini will lead a cast that features Richard Croft, reprising his critically acclaimed interpretation of Gandhi.

There will be seven performances taking place at the Met through December 1. The November 8 performance of Satyagraha includes a pre-concert talk by composer Nico Muhly. The performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74 and will also be streamed live on the Met’s Web site, metopera.org. On November 19, the opera will be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which is now seen in 1,600 movie theaters in 54 countries.

Watch a preview of the Met's production of Satyagraha here:

Satyagraha is divided into three acts, each inspired by a major historical figure: the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, and the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The plot of the opera follows Gandhi through his formative years as a young attorney in South Africa, where his firsthand experience of racial inequality inspired him to create the movement of non-violent resistance that would define his life and work. The Sanskrit libretto, by Glass and Constance DeJong, is taken from the Bhaghavad Gita. Croft will be joined by two of the other leads of the Met premiere production, Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlesen and Alfred Walker as Parsi Rustomji, and Kim Josephson will sing the role of Mr. Kallenbach.

The opera is the second part of Glass’s famous trilogy of operas about important historical figures, which also includes Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (1983). Satyagraha is the second Glass opera to be performed at the Met, following The Voyage, a Met commission that premiered in 1992.

Conductor Anzolini is a leading interpreter of Glass’s work; in addition to the Met premiere of this opera, he has conducted critically acclaimed performances of The White Raven in Lisbon and at the Lincoln Center Festival; Symphony No. 5 in Brussels and at the Kennedy Center; Akhnaten at Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, France; and the European premiere of Symphony No. 8 with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in Austria.

For more information, including numerous essays, videos, an audio slideshow, the libretto, and more and to purchase tickets, visit metopera.org. For a special offer, buy one ticket and get your second at 50% off, use the code SATYA09.

To pick up a copy of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout. You can find excerpts from Satyagraha in the Glass Box: A Nonesuch Retrospective.