Gaṅgā
A Chamber Opera in Sanskrit
Synopsis
The story of Ganga: a saga of heartbreak, promises and love.
Ganga is a powerful, yet helpless, celestial river goddess, whose womb becomes the medium to fulfil the higher purpose of gods and men. Cursed and doomed to be born as mortals, the eight Vasus choose Ganga to be their mother. She promises to release all but one from the curse; the last must live on earth.
Ganga chooses her beloved Shantanu, mighty king of Hastinapur, to be the father. But, to keep her promise to the Vasus, she must also break his heart.
Music
Jataneel Banerjee
Words
Original Sanskrit text from Mahabharata by Veda Vyasa. Additional Sanskrit text by Dr Baldevanand Sagar and English text by Jataneel Banerjee.
Press review
It represents an honourable combination of cultural traditions that should offer a western musical audience access to Indian legends...
The music showed a syncretic absorption of different traditions from Handel to Vaughan Williams with strong South Asian overtones: potentially a fascinating genre ...
Pulse Magazine
Audience review
Fantastic! Amazing! Epic!
Really nice to see this story told in this way - looking forward to seeing the other parts of it.
Amazing performance.
