FORSAKEN

Forsaken draws on parallel themes of Verdi’s Otello in the Indian epic the Ramayana. Specially commissioned for the Deloitte Ignite Festival 2013, the dance starts from the abduction of Princess Sita by the demon king Ravana to the subsequent questioning of her chastity because of her time in captivity in another man’s house. Sita is revered in India as the ideal, pure and chaste woman. Despite her fidelity and rescue by her husband Prince Rama – a paragon of morality – she is ultimately forsaken by him. Although loving Sita deeply, and knowing her to be innocent, Rama sends her into exile because his judgment is questioned by the gossiping citizens of his kingdom for taking her back as his wife. This abandonment ultimately leads to Sita crying out to her Mother, the Earth, to open up and take her back into her womb and release her from a cruel and unjust world.

The dance is performed to three arias from Verdi’s opera Otello with its themes of lust, doubt, love, sacrifice and death echoing the story of the Ramayana.

CHOREOGRAPHY & CONCEPT
MAYURI BOONHAM

MUSIC
‘CREDO IN UN DIO CRUDEL’, ‘ERA LA NOTTE, CASSIO DORMIA’, AND ‘AVE MARIA’ FROM GIUSEPPE VERDI’S ‘OTELLO’, ARRANGED BY HARI SIVANESAN

MUSIC ARRANGEMENT
HARI SIVANESAN

MUSICIANS
HARI SIVANESAN, PRADEEPA SIVASANTHIRAN

PIANO
EDWARD BATTING

BARITONE
DAWID KIMBERG

SOPRANO
ANITA WATSON

DANCERS
YASMINE NAGHDI, SANDER BLOMMAERT, NICOL EDMONDS

PREMIERE
SEPTEMBER 2013
as part of ‘Deloitte Ignite Verdi/Wagner’ curated by Stephen Fry and The Royal Opera

SUPPORTERS
Royal Opera House in collaboration with Deloitte Ignite, Arts Council England