Richard Trinder, Editor

Orpheus. An Extraordinary Reimagining Of Monteverdi's Classic Opera

Nicholas Watts as Orpheus and Ashnaa Sasikaran as Eurydice with the Orpheus company
Nicholas Watts as Orpheus and Ashnaa Sasikaran as Eurydice with the Orpheus company
At least four years in the making and drawing on the talents of many dozens of people, the long-term South Asian Arts and Opera North collaboration has finally emerged. Like a butterfly blossoming from a chrysalis and, after a long gestation where the component parts dissolve into each other to make something entirely new, this collaboration has produced a thing of great beauty.

Based on Monteverdi’s late Renaissance/early Baroque opera Orpheus, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, the opera draws on the Greek legend of Orpheus. It tells the tale of his descent into Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world.

The new production weaves a new musical and dramatic tapestry from western and Indian classical music. It features extensive additional composition and arrangements by co-music director/composer and sitar player Jasdeep Singh Degun, working as co-Music Director with early music expert Laurence Cummings. The opera is sung in Italian and Urdu, with additional sections sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi and Bengali. Fortunately for us mere mortals in the audience there were English titles shown.

Indian classical music is an improvised tradition based on very strict melodic and rhythmical frameworks called raag and taal...
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.

Some passages of the opera have been re-scored 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.

row[
Kaviraj Singh as Caronte
Kaviraj Singh as Caronte
Yarlinie Thanabalasingam as Nambikkai (Hope)
Yarlinie Thanabalasingam as Nambikkai (Hope)
Kezia Bienek as Silvia (The Messenger)
Kezia Bienek as Silvia (The Messenger)
]

Recently announced as Opera North’s Artist-in-Residence, Jasdeep Singh Degun, says of this production:

"I'm very happy to be beginning my tenure as artist-in-residence at Opera North with the new and exciting production of Orpheus. As well as acting as joint Music Director on the opera with the brilliant Laurence Cummings, I have been fortunate to compose new music alongside Monteverdi's masterpiece. I'm very excited to be bringing such a stellar cast of Indian classical musicians and vocalists to Leeds - these are, quite literally, the best of the best Indian classical musicians in the UK!

"Indian classical music is an improvised tradition based on very strict melodic and rhythmical frameworks called raag and taal, while the nature of 16th-century opera has a lot of scope for embellishment and improvisation. This makes the two traditions quite compatible with each other, in the sense that there is much opportunity for the performers to breathe life into the written music."

Shahbaz Hussain on tabla, RN Prakash on ghatam, Mark Wagstaff on percussion, Sergio Bucheli on theorbo, Jasdeep Singh Degun on sitar and Andrew Long on violin
Shahbaz Hussain on tabla, RN Prakash on ghatam, Mark Wagstaff on percussion, Sergio Bucheli on theorbo, Jasdeep Singh Degun on sitar and Andrew Long on violin
Anna Himali Howard, Director, talked about working with such a diverse cast:

"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."

Keranjeet Kaur Virdee, Chief Executive and Artistic Director, South Asian Arts-uk:

"I imagine that when Monteverdi composed Orpheus he would have met with diverse musicians who influenced him creatively. Now, through this collaboration we have the opportunity to bring together a cast who are masters in their own right, who can break down boundaries and cross borders through music to touch our hearts and minds. Ultimately, they remind us that we are all humans with lots of shared similarities and particularities that deserve to be celebrated unapologetically."

Ashnaa Sasikaran as Eurydice and Nicholas Watts as Orpheus with members of the Orpheus company
Ashnaa Sasikaran as Eurydice and Nicholas Watts as Orpheus with members of the Orpheus company
Operatic tenor Nicholas Watts as Orpheus, cast alongside British-Tamil Carnatic singer Ashnaa Sasikaran as Eurydice, had clearly worked hard to blend their disparate voices. The softer, more intimate, sometimes improvised story telling sounds of Carnatic singing might have been lost in the Leeds Grand auditorium when compared to the powerful projection style of Western operatic singing. But thanks to sound designer Camilo Tirado and a very hard working mixing desk engineer the two styles blended very well.

With a powerful undercurrent of Monteverdi's musical themes and the detailed overlays of Jasdeep Singh Degun's compositions the fullness of sound achieved was quite extraordinary; rich, emotional, permanently interesting and, dare I say it, fully managing to avoid Monteverdi's tendency to bang on a little too long.

Such interesting music combined with a splendidly well dressed set, moody lighting by Jackie Shemesh and appropriately rich costumes by Leslie Travers made this a wholesome feast for eyes as well as the ears.

Four years in the making it may have been, but don't for one moment think of this as some worthy cross-cultural experiment. This was something new. One that shows due respect to many traditions. It is a powerful cross fertilisation of East and West and has produced an extremely beautiful new creature. One that has wings and, it is to be hoped, will have equally lovely offspring.



The production runs in Leeds until Saturday 22 October, after which it tours with a revival of Verdi's La traviata, and a concert performance of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice to Newcastle, Nottingham and The Lowry at Salford Quays.

More information here