Aapki Khushi – ORPHEUS Monteverdi, Degun – Opera North

‘Aapki Khushi’ was composed by Jasdeep Singh Degun and arranged by Ashok Gupta. In this context, ‘Aapki Khushi’ can be translated as ‘Your joy is my joy’. Eurydice (Ashnaa Sasikaran) and Orpheus (Nicholas Watts) are at their wedding, singing in Hindi and Italian. 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 instrument