On a quest to find lost love
It’ll be a clash between Indian and Occidental cultures on stage as Orfeo, considered to be one of the oldest operas in history, will be staged with an Indian touch.
Renamed as Orfeo, Crossing the Ganges, the original story of Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo will be Indianised not only in terms of its script but also in terms of its music that makes the very essence of any opera performance.
Brought to the capital by the Neemrana Music Foundation in association with Indian Council of Cultural Relations and Institut Francais, the five-act opera will take the audience on a journey to Varanasi through poetry, theatre and music.
Montiverdi’s Orfeo is the story of a young man whose wife Eurydice dies due to snakebite. Orfeo’s love takes him to the underworld in search of his beloved, where he has to use his talent as a singer to get through the doors of hell and charm the Gods.
Francois Rancillac, the stage director of the show, shares about the changes made to the original. He says, “As opposed to Monteverdi’s classic, here Orfeo doesn’t go to the underworld, but to another country. His journey to the other world to find his beloved is like crossing the Ganges to the holy city of Varansi. And the guard protecting the gates to the underworld is represented by a sadhu.”
He adds, “Moreover, our female protagonist is an Indian dancer in service of Lord Shiva. Orfeo falls in love with her and kidnaps her for marriage not caring about her will, angering Shiva. She later dies by what could be perceived of as a bite from Shiva’s snake.”
Francoise Lasserre, the conductor of the opera was also the one who adapted the script into the Indian version. She intended to highlight the violence against women in India through this production; the reason she added the sequence where Orfeo kidnaps Eurydice instead of asking her to marry him.
Asked about the musical collaboration between Western and Indian music in the production, Lasserre shares, “I heard the sounds of shehnai and sarangi some two years back in a concert in Paris. I found them melancholic and apt to be used in the part where Orfeo travels to the underworld.”
“Apart from that, there’s Arushi Mudgal’s Odyssey at the end, lamenting Orfeo’s death. There are many moments with an Indian touch,” she concludes.
The opera will be staged from 25th to 27th September at Kamani Auditorium
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