Akhnaten is an opera in three acts by American minimalist composer Philip Glass (see Glass, Philip). Minimalist music features repeated short patterns of music with complex rhythmic variations but simple harmonies. Akhnaten was based on the life of the pharaoh Akhnaten, also spelled Akhenaten, who ruled ancient Egypt from about 1353 to 1336 B.C. The opera was completed in July 1983. It received its first performance in Stuttgart, Germany, on March 24, 1984. Glass composed the opera to a libretto (text) on which he collaborated with writers Shalom Goldman and Richard Riddell and the stage designer Robert Israel.