Opera Scotland

Anamchara Songs of Friendship

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Tours by location

Music

Pippa Murphy

Text

Alexander McCall Smith

 

Premieres

First Performance: Glasgow (Theatre Royal), 25 July 2014.

 

Background

This family opera, presented to coincide with Glasgow's staging of the Commonwealth Games, is a celebration using traditional intruments from both India and Scotland.

Over 100 performers will bring Anamchara – Songs of Friendship to life, with young professional singers, musicians and dancers from Scottish Opera, Calgary Opera, Cape Town Opera , New Zealand Opera  and the India-based Yuva Ekta Foundation working alongside Scottish singers. The project will draw on volunteer participants from Scottish Opera’s Connect Orchestra and Chorus and a community choir made up of children, students and adults from Commonwealth countries living and working in Glasgow.  Four young people from Botswana, and their teacher, have also travelled here to join the Community Chorus. This has been organised by the British Council in Botswana and the Maitisong Festival.

With words by acclaimed Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, and music from composer Pippa Murphy, Anamchara – Songs of Friendship is a celebration of the ties that bind people together, whatever their age and wherever they make their home. Seven songs symbolise seven different kinds of friendship, from childhood affection, to teenagers in love to adulthood. The work is being co-directed by Martin O’Connor and Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artist Director Lissa Lorenzo.

Scottish Opera’s Connect Orchestra play Pippa Murphy’s complex and emotive score, conducted by Chris Gray, while members of the Connect Chorus and Scottish Opera Emerging Artists Andrew McTaggart and Sarah Power take on lead singing roles.