The ancient epic poem 'Epic of Gilgamesh,' dating back over 3,000 years, is being reimagined as a contemporary English-language opera. Director Kip Williams and composer Jack Symonds delve into the story of King Gilgamesh's journey from tyranny to wisdom, exploring themes of narcissism, love, loss, and mortality through music and drama.
After a week of non-stop sex, one of their wildest men was ready not for a long post-coital sleep but to tackle their tyrant king.Epic of Gilgamesh
Artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company Kip Williams and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera Jack Symonds.Director Kip Williams and composer Jack Symonds take a break from a rehearsal room strewn with fallen branches, where they’ve been working on a pivotal forest scene.“We’re living in one of the most narcissistic ages in human history,” he says. “Narcissism has always existed in human beings, but it has a stranglehold at the moment.
Williams and Symonds are having something of a bromance of their own. This is their sixth Sydney Chamber Opera collaboration in an artistic partnership that began in 2011 withSince then, Williams has become the most prominent Australia director of his generation. As artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company since 2016, his ground-breaking cine-theatre production ofWilliams will leave the STC at the end of the year. Whatever comes next, he is resolved to continue working with Symonds.
So excited was the scholar at his find – which appeared to corroborate the Biblical story – that he leapt up and ran about the room shedding his clothes. The discovery caused a sensation in Victorian England. “I wanted to make something where the natural world and the blossoming of their love were one. I knew that I wanted them to unite on a single note - the middle point of both their colours. I built the entire scene backwards from that moment.”It’s a novel way of working, but Symonds has long taken an innovative approach to creating contemporary opera. He composes with specific singers in mind. Indeed, he finds it difficult to compose otherwise.
Opera Epic Of Gilgamesh Sydney Theatre Company Contemporary Music Ancient Literature
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