Opera North's Orpheus: Monteverdi Reimagined premieres at Leeds Grand Theatre

Orpheus – Monteverdi R eimagined, which opens at Leeds Grand Theatre on Friday, is the result of a major collaboration between Opera North and South Asian Arts-uk, a Leeds-based centre of excellence for Indian classical music. The piece will be sung in Italian and Urdu (with English titles) to tell the tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice whose newlywed joy is soon shattered by the sudden death of Eurydice. The heartbroken Orpheus then travels to the underworld in order to rescue his bride and return her to life.

The cast brings together musicians and performers from both musical traditions with tenor Nicholas Watts taking on the title role and Carnatic singer Ashnaa Sasikaran as his beloved. The audience can expect to see and listen to instruments that are not usually encountered in the same space including the bowed strings of the violin and the tar shehnai and the plucked strings of the harpsichord and sitar.

Leeds-born composer, virtuoso sitar player and rising star of the Indian classical and contemporary music scenes Jasdeep Singh Degun is co-music director on the project alongside Laurence Cummings. “I was keen that musically it shouldn’t sound reductive or ‘fusiony’,” he says. “I wanted to find a way that was respectful to both musical styles and to ensure that everyone involved would feel that their traditions were being respected. It’s been quite challenging for me but it has been a very fruitful process.”

Jasdeep was recently announced as Opera North’s artist in residence and has previously worked with the company on Partition, a 2017 collaboration with South Asian Arts-uk commemorating the 60th anniversary of the division of India and Pakistan and Arya, a concerto for sitar and orchestra which premiered in 2020. In fact, it was while he was working on his concerto that the project was first mentioned to him. Then, of course, there was an interruption due to the Covid pandemic. “I think conversations had been going on between Opera North and South Asian Arts-uk for about three of four years prior but I got a call in January this year to say that the project was going head in October and could I be involved? So I came in a bit late in its development and had to hit the ground running. Then I was commissioned to write some new compositions and arrangements. I have been studying the original Monteverdi score for the past eight or nine months.” The opera takes place on the day of the wedding of Orpheus, a musician of mythical power, to Eurydice. Director Anna Himali Howard has relocated the action to a contemporary British garden, a reference to one of the few places where people were allowed to meet up when lockdown restrictions were in force. The set and costumes, designed by Leslie Travers, also take inspiration from Indian and western cultures.

As a composer Jasdeep has gained experience in collaborative work across a range of different styles and genres of music and as a regular studio session musician he has worked with a variety of musicians and producers including Cerys Matthews, Melanie C, Guy Chambers and Vangelis. “I have been involved in lots of projects and heard all the different combinations of Indian music and rock and pop but for this I wanted it to be an equal coming together - we all had to compromise to deliver this. In the Indian classical music tradition nothing is written down, it is all done aurally, which is very different from the western tradition where everything is scored.”

Jasdeep brought on board “literally the best musicians I could find” from the Indian classical music world. “It’s been one of the hardest things I have ever done but the company feels like a family. Everyone has been going above and beyond. Also it is nice that it is happening up North - usually these kinds of projects happen in London. I hope there will more in the future.” He says he has been impressed at how committed everyone involved has been in their approach to creating something new and exciting and how willing they have been to experiment. “They have all been really open to trying new things. Hopefully this will pave the way for Opera North to make maybe an electronic opera or an Irish folk opera. It’s been a huge learning curve but so worthwhile.”

At Leeds Grand Theatre, October 14-22. Then touring. operanorth.co.uk