L'Orfeo - Claudio Monteverdi

What lies between opera and the choreographic? How can we reshape the structures for how we hear through space and visuals? What happens to our oldest stories when they are told through new voices?

Orfeo is artist Sasha Amaya‘s re-creation of Monteverdi’s 1607 opera based on the ancient Greek myth, through which she explores listening, proximity, power, and loss.

Using the interface between music and movement, and a re-casting of feminine-read bodies for all roles, Amaya explores what happens if we turn our attention from Orfeo to Euridice in this fabled tale. Balancing choreographic tools, musical expertise, and the relationality of bodies, the work juxtaposes tension and flow, restriction and agency, control and creativity.

With an interest in bringing new perspectives into opera, hosting musical theatre outside of city centres, and creating POC-directed teams in the field of new music, this new work from Amaya is hosted within the frame of Lake Studios Berlin and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Berlin Senatsverwaltung, and Lake Studios Berlin.

With a sublime compositional intervention from Sara Glojnarić, minimalist costumes from Rike Zöllner, and beautiful performances from Hyuneum Kim, Avila Lorena Sarode, and Malena Napal, Orfeo is a striking meditation on a well-known story through fresh eyes.