Orfeo in India: criticism

Newage dance-opera

The Orphan theme began to be increasingly popular in the second half of XX century. C. Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was presented in the most of large opera houses around Europe, and, consequently, many new Orphan operas came into sight. Some artists even searched for non-traditional ways of comprehending this well-enlightened topic. Such, in 1959 French director M. Camus makes a film in Brazil “Black Orpheus”, which becomes a modern Brazilian adaptation of Greek myth with the action happening during the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1986 composer H. Birtwistle and librettist P. Zinoviev staged a 3-act opera “The Mask of Orpheus” in London, where Orpheus’s Underworld journey is shown as a night dream. Birtwistle writes substantial amount of electronic music for his project. Singer A. Mitchell in 2010 goes further and records in Brooklyn, NY an indie-folk album of songs “Hadestown”, based on Orphan story.  And in 2011 composer N. McGowan with Dutch director M. Lakerveld stage an adaptation of Monteverdi’s original opera with Indian folk musical instruments and national dances in Amsterdam, Auroville and New Delhi. Similar opera “Orfeo crossing the Ganges” appears in 2013, given birth by Indo-French collaboration with director F. Lasserre in Paris and in India. Both “Orfeo in India” and “Orfeo crossing the Ganges” are noticeable because of completely modified Orphan myth, which transfers location of action from Greece into India, and places the Underworld in holiest Indian city Varanasi. Farther, Orpheus’s bride Euridyce becomes an Indian sacred Odissi dancer of Lord Shiva’s cult, and Orpheus himself from the greatest musician of all times turns into Greek bard who kidnaps Euridyce against all the local rules: “the question we asked ourselves was why does Eurydice sing so little. Maybe she was from a culture that prevented her from expressing herself in music. Just like the Indian bride who is not allowed to sing at her wedding. And may be Orfeo was from a culture different from hers. That led us to base Eurydice’s world in India,” (Aude Priya. San-Francisco Classical Voice, Sep 24, 2013: Orpheus at the Ganges) . Shocking fusion of Monteverdi’s original music with written-in Indian folk arias, introduction toccata and colorful finale rythmisized with tablas, where medieval fight dance Moresca meets Vedic chant and Carnatic tribal rhythm, displays a distinctive feature of each of the adopted versions to be a modern musical pearl. As the libretti of “Orfeo in India” and “Orfeo Crossing the Ganges” are the same, we may historically consider them as a unified artistic and philosophical idea, staged by two different international troupes: an Italian Dance-opera with Indian vibrato.

Production

Miranda Lakerveld, the director of “Orfeo in India” admits that once Monteverdi’s opera was created from a “living context, taking its roots from folk-music and rituals, thus creating a natural relation to the community”. (Auroville Today, Feb 2011: Orfeo in India). Currently, any opera is an extremely elite occasion in India which is in addition far from public’s cultural digestions. Hereby, Miranda Lakerveld (Holland) together with choreographer Mallika Sarabhai of Darpana Performance Group (Ahmadabad) and composer Ned McGowan came to produce an opera which once again would have roots in natural folk traditions, and “go beyond the classical mask and focus on opera’s tribal character”. Many arias in Italian are kept untouched. Three European singers join the project: soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone perform along with two Indian tenors. The orchestration of original opera (which includes, for example, two harpsichords, two organs, lutes) may puzzle leaders of many modern concert halls, especially in India. Here electronic keyboards come to hand. But yet many other problems appear when Western and Indian musicians come to play together: number of instruments are even tuned in differing frequency of pitches, not mentioning phrasing preconceptions of European orchestra players in performing classical masterpiece. In this way, Western-Eastern merge opera becomes a daring breakthrough to a future art approaches.

Concept of Orpheus

It is significant, that the firstmy research survived opera-seria in Western culture, written by C. Monteverdi and staged in Mantua in 1607, was plotted on a life theme of earliest known Western musician – Orpheus. According to Greek mythology, Orpheus was half-God half-man, born as a son of Thracian king and the Muse of poetry Calliope. An ancient Greek poet Pindar describes Orpheus as a historical personality, “the father of songs” (Pindar. Pythian Odes, 4.4.315) who brought poetry and music into Greece. Simultaneously, Indian mythology holds resembling stories of an Indian guru, master of Music, who migrated to ancient Greece. Question of historical identity as well as the fact of physical existence of Orpheus stays opened to discussion. Such, in modern “Italian opera with Indian vibrato” projects, Orpheus becomes a foreign Western bard, who is unfamiliar with Indian rites and traditions he faces when decides to kidnap Eurydice. “To experience his love, he violates all the rules of Indian society. The great Shiva takes revenge by killing the beautiful woman whose purity has been compromised. Driven by the heroism of blind love, Orpheus sets off to India to search for her. Acknowledging all the skills he displays, the God seems to take pity on him and agrees to give the young dancer back. Yet it is but an illusory shadow that follows Orpheus, for it seems that the latter’s heart lacks the purity to be worthy of such a benediction.” (Francoise Lasserre. CBH, 2013: Orfeo crossing the Ganges). Creators of these operas transfer half-God half-human abilities of Orpheus to the wide comprehension of modern public who may project Orpheus’s qualities to their own everyday life. Singing talent of Orpheus opens to him doors of Varanasi where he is allowed to talk to Lord Shiva and demand from him life of his bride. “It seems like such a simple condition to not look back. So why does Orfeo turn back? Maybe the root of it lies in the fact that he doesn’t understand her world and finds it hard to adjust to it,”. (Aude Priya. San-Francisco Classical Voice, Sep 24, 2013: Orpheus at the Ganges). Basically, here it is emphasized, how many issues Hinduism has about eternal looking back, denying mortality of a soul, and Orpheus’s fatal debacle who attempted to refuse intangible life. One can say, adapted Indian Orphan operas open doors to variety of philosophical, artistic and performing questions that would likely get upgrowth in demand around the diminishing planet, expanding scopes of particularistic classical treatment.