A cross-cultural production of one of the world’s oldest surviving operas is coming to The Lowry.
Orpheus, a reimagining of Monteverdi’s 1607 work L’Orfeo, brings western and Indian classical music together in a dramatic tapestry of colour and sound.
Directed by Anna Himali Howard, the play recounts the classic Greek myth of Orpheus, who travels to the Underworld to find his new wife, Eurydice, after her death on their wedding day.
A project by Opera North, Orpheus has grown out of their longstanding collaborative relationship with South Asian Arts-UK, a Leeds-based centre for Indian classical music.
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 instruments such as harpsichord, theorbo and lirone.
Director, Anna Himali Howard said: “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.”
The cast includes performers trained in western and Indian classical traditions, with tenor Nicholas Watts singing Orpheus and British-Tamil Carnatic singer Ashnaa Sasikaran singing Eurydice.
Ms Howard continued: “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.”
Orpheus will be performed at The Lowry on Saturday 19th November at 19:00. More information on the performance can be found on The Lowry’s website.
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