Whatever Happened to Zora D? - Presentation

Synopsis

Isidora Žebeljan, Composer & Librettist (Serbian);
Milica Žebeljan, Librettist (Serbian)
Based on an original idea by
Dusan Ristic, (Serbian)
Conductor: Gerry Cornelius

Listen to music from this piece...

Whatever Happened to Zora D? is a lyrical drama about a fantastical love story; a tale of a great and inexplicable love in search of fulfilment, regardless of how impossible it might be. Minna, a plain, lonely librarian, is suffering from a nightmare that returns night after night. The only part of the dream she remembers is a silver scarf, an unknown woman, and fragments of a strange song she can hardly recall. In her library, a stranger leaves a book open on a table. She realises, in shock, that it is the poem of her dreams; the author's name is Zora D.

Disturbed by this strange event, she sets out to learn more about the author and discovers that Zora D. was a remarkable poet whose intellect and spirit surpassed many better-known poets of her time. One day in 1935 she disappeared and was never heard from again. With the help of an old contemporary of Lydia's and the mysterious stranger who seems to slip in and out of her dreams, Minna begins to investigate Lydia's disappearance. She is drawn into a world of passion and guilt; of secrets that have haunted the living for years; and a love that fights out of death to be expressed.

Isidora Žebeljan, based in Belgrade, is composing and writing the libretto of the opera, from an original story by Dusan Ristic, to a libretto created with her sister, Milica. Detective mystery, ghost tale, love poem, Whatever Happened to Zora D? recreates the oldest story in opera - unquenchable yearning for a distant love - in a deeply affecting and powerful work, full of twists and turns, and a fabulous, unexpected ending.

The opera begins where the boundaries of the world of reality end.

Casting at the Workshop

Woman/Minna/Zora Joanna Burton Soprano
Vida Aileen Sim Mezzo
Stranger/Professor/Antique Seller/Jovan Richard Jackson Baritone

Repititeur: Stephen de Pledge

Instrumentation

Clarinet, Bassoon, Sax in Eb, Horn, Trumpet in C, Percussion, Harp, Piano, Violins x 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass