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An opera in one act by Georges BizetFully staged performances in costume of this middle eastern love story! |
Sparkling and witty new English translation by
Guy Davenport
New performing edition
arranged for augmented Wind Quintet
and conducted by
Erica Kollek
Performed at The Electric Theatre,
Guildford,
29th & 30th July 2006
| Djamileh | Soprano | Kateriana Fenech |
| Splendiano | Baritone | Brandon Velarde |
| Haroun | Tenor | Huw Reynolds |
Press comment
“The soprano Kateriana Fenech captured every facet of Djamileh’s character. She looked and sounded quite beautiful, and made a great deal of her gently pulsating lament, ensuring that every word of Guy Davenport’s translation was heard.”
Petersfield PostAbout the opera
Djamileh is a one-act, one-hour operatic love story by Georges Bizet. It is not only immediately reminiscent of its successor, Carmen; it also hints of Bizet's other great operas, The Pearl Fishers and The Fair Maid of Perth.
The opera tells the tale of a girl, Djamileh, who expects to be given the push (like all the previous girls) after just one month with her lover Haroun. She is sad, for (in true opera style) she has fallen for the cad and wants to stay with him forever.
To complicate matters Haroun's servant, excruciatingly named Splendiano, who has the job of finding a new girl for his master every month, has this time actually fallen in love with Djamileh himself.
Djamileh plots with Splendiano that she will get back together with Haroun. Poor Splendiano loses her, but their cunning plan works for Djamileh and Haroun.
In the new translation made for this production by Guy Davenport, Djamileh received a sparkling, contemporary makeover, but it was staged in a traditional manner, without losing its eastern flavour.
Björg Árnadóttir and Erica Kollek were both collaborators on Weber's Abu Hassan which re-titled Andrew McCann, was taken by Opera South in 2000 to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it received four stars from The Scotsman.