Mesmerising Cross-Cultural Production of Orpheus to visit The Lowry
An innovative new staging of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus by Opera North comes to The Lowry, Salford on Saturday 19th November, following rave reviews in Leeds
Saturday 19th November, 7pm
Journey to another world of love and music
An innovative new staging of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus by Opera North comes to The Lowry, Salford on Saturday 19th November, following rave reviews in Leeds.
Orpheus, a reimagining of one of the earliest surviving operas, Monteverdi’s 1607 work L’Orfeo, weaves a new musical and dramatic tapestry from western and Indian classical music.
The new version will feature additional composition and arrangements by Jasdeep Singh Degun, working as co-Music Director with early music expert Laurence Cummings.
The opera will be sung in Italian and Urdu, with additional sections sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi and Bengali. There will be English titles at all performances.
Some passages of the opera are being rescored and arranged for Indian classical instruments including the sitar, tabla and tar shehnai, in addition to European baroque instruments such as harpsichord, theorbo and lirone.
The project has grown out of Opera North’s longstanding collaborative relationship with South Asian Arts-uk, a Leeds based centre of excellence in Indian classical music.
In a production directed by Anna Himali Howard with sets and costumes by Leslie Travers, the setting of one of the most famous Greek myths is relocated to a contemporary wedding party in a British garden.
The opera takes place on the day of the wedding of Orpheus, a musician of mythical power, to Eurydice. But their joy is shattered when Eurydice dies suddenly, and Orpheus, heartbroken, vows to travel to the Underworld to find his new wife and return her to life.
The cast includes performers trained in western and Indian classical traditions, with tenor Nicholas Watts singing Orpheus and British-Tamil Carnatic singer Ashnaa Sasikaransinging Eurydice. Opera North soprano Amy Freston and award-winning vocalist Deepa Nair Rasiya share the prologue role of Music/ Sangeet, while other parts are taken by performers including Chandra Chakraborty as Proserpina, Dean Robinson as Pluto, Yarlinie Thanabalasingam as Nambikkai (Hope) and Kezia Bienk as Silvia (The Messenger)
In addition to playing in the ensemble, santoor player Kaviraj Singh will perform the role of Caronte, while esraj and tar shehnai player Kirpal Singh Panesar will also sing the part of Apollo.
Also joining the cast are opera singers Frances Gregory, Claire Lees, Simon Grange and Xavier Hetherington, alongside many other eminent performers of Indian classical music in the UK, including Birmingham-based Hindustani singer Sanchita Pal, London based singer Chiranjeeb Chakraborty, and Delhi-born khayal singer Vijay Rajput, now based in Newcastle.
An onstage orchestra of 19 players includes a baroque ensemble of violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, percussion, harp, harpsichord, lirone and theorbo, as well as Indian classical instruments including sitar, tabla, santoor, esraj and bansuri.
The intimate scale, partially improvised and collaborative nature of early opera, where performers were not expected to follow a formal score, offers creative opportunities for Monteverdi’s music to be performed alongside the Indian classical melodic and rhythmical frameworks of raag and taal. Discovering the meeting point for these two traditions and shaping their musical encounter are joint music directors Laurence Cummings, music director of the Academy of Ancient Music, and Jasdeep Singh Degun, a Leeds-born composer and virtuoso sitar player.
Recently announced as Opera North’s Artist-in-Residence, Jasdeep Singh Degun’s previous work with the Company includes Partition, a 2017 collaboration with South Asian Arts-uk in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the division of India and Pakistan, and Arya, a concerto for sitar and orchestra, which premiered in 2020.
Anna Himali Howard, Director, Orpheus, comments: “I am enormously honoured and excited to be working with an incredible team of artists and musicians to bring together two exquisite musical forms. We have chosen to set the ancient story of Orpheus and Eurydice against a backdrop of modern Britain, in which the love and grief of ordinary people feels epic. As the musicians and singers gather together to tell the story in a garden, the music will transport us to mythical worlds.
“This is a very special collaboration, and it presents us with unique opportunities to express the themes of the story: the joy of love, the pain of loss, and what happens when the underworld comes to you. We are able to draw from multiple traditions, disciplines and aesthetics to tell a story which has a universal experience at its heart. I hope that audiences will be captivated and moved by the transcendent music and intimate storytelling of the piece.”
The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
Access Line: 0333 320 2838
Box Office (PHONE ONLY): Mon- Fri 9am-8pm | Sat 10am-8pm | Sun 10am-6pm: 0343 208 6000
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