Organization

Conductor

Laurence Cummings

Jasdeep Singh Degun

Stage director

Anna Himali Howard

Set designer

Leslie Travers

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Jackie Shemesh

Sound designer

Camilo Tirado

Choreographer

Urja Desai Thakore

Translator

Ustad Dharambir Singh

Shahbaz Hussain

Singer

Deepa Nair Rasiya

Sangeet

Amy Freston

La Musica

Xavier Hetherington

Charavaaho

Chiranjeeb Chakraborty

Vijay Rajput

Simon Grange

Nicholas Watts

Orpheus

Ashnaa Sasikaran

Eurydice

Sanchita Pal

Apsaro

Claire Lees

Frances Gregory

Kezia Bienek

Silvia

Kaviraj Singh

Caronte

Yarlinie Thanabalasingam

Nambikkai

Chandra Chakraborty

Prosperina

Dean Robinson

Pluto

Kirpal Singh Panesar

Apollo

Opera North

Orchestra

Orchestra of Opera North

Italian

Hindi

Urdu

Malayalam

Bengali

Punjabi

Tamil

Manchester

United Kingdom

The Lowry

Nottingham

Theatre Royal

Newcastle-on-Tyne

Salford Quays

The wedding of the year is here as Orpheus, the musician of mythical power, marries graceful Eurydice. When the newlyweds’ joy is shattered by the sudden death of Eurydice, our heartbroken hero sets off on a mission to the underworld to rescue his bride, certain that his love will overcome adversity. Can Orpheus conquer fate, or will his heart be broken for a second time?

Opera North’s adventurous new production of an ancient tragedy is told through a meeting of the worlds of Indian and western baroque classical music. The bowed strings of the violin and the tar shehnai, the hammered strings of the santoor, the plucked strings of the harpsichord and sitar, and the rhythms of the tabla shape a unique musical encounter. Laurence Cummings, who also conducted Garsington’s Orfeo, is here joined by Jasdeep Singh Degun as co-music director to weave together their respective traditions of Indian classical and western early music. 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 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. In this meeting of East and West, OperaVision closes a month dedicated to opera’s ongoing fascination with the myth of Orpheus.

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