From Romeo and Juliet to Leo and Kate on their sinking ship, the
story of star-crossed lovers has been told and retold to an
immeasurable degree.
Despite the fact that the frame story is well known to all,
audiences everywhere continue to fall in love with and mourn the
deaths of their favorite doomed duos. A new tragic romance titled
“Lakme: Redux” opens tonight at 8 p.m. at Schoenberg
Hall. Based on the 1883 French opera “Lakme” by
composer Léo Delibes, this archetypal struggle of young love
against worldly forces contains all the elements of forbidden
passion, including class separation, prejudice and a time period
riddled with conflict.
A far leap from the music department’s production last
year of the ever-popular “West Side Story,”
“Lakme: Redux” is not only a remake of a rather obscure
and unknown opera, but the version being produced here only
contains two of the original songs. The rest of the music has been
reworked and recomposed for the past nine months by fourth-year
composition student Ryan Scott Oliver and third-year composition
student Brett Ryback, both with the music department.
“I can honestly say that I have not had a social life for
nine months,” Scott Oliver said. “But we are really
excited to see it open this week. We are like two proud parents who
are eager for our baby to succeed. … Literally, since it took
nine months to complete.”
The time period is the 19th century during the British
occupation of India and, as is custom, natural, social and parental
forces will be working around the clock to keep the lovers apart in
order to ensure a classic tragic ending. The story of “Lakme:
Redux” unfolds around the title character, Lakme, a Hindu
priestess, her lover, who is a British soldier, and a father who is
so opposed to the man his daughter has chosen that he attempts to
kill him.
“The plot is a stock one,” Ryback said. “But
by working with a storyline that we have seen over and over again,
we got the chance to put our own spin on something that the world
is familiar with. The end isn’t necessarily what you think it
is going to be, and also shaping the core “˜Romeo and
Juliet’ idea around the Hindu culture puts a new twist on
something seemingly old.”
The idea to remodel this 19th-century opera was conceived by
director John Hall, who essentially wanted to keep the two main
songs, “Flower Duet” and “Bell Song,” and
create the rest of the script and music around them. From there,
Scott Oliver and Ryback completely rewrote the score.
“Collaboration is one of the hardest things to do when it
comes to art,” Ryback said. “Especially for two people
like Ryan and I, who really do not sound alike, to create a
homophonic sound for this production was often a
struggle.”
This year’s show is also a breakthrough in the history of
the music department’s productions, being the first time ever
the department has allowed undergraduate students to compose their
own music for the yearly performance. For the two aspiring
composers, being able to create something so original was an
unexpected and greatly welcomed opportunity.
“Even in the professional world, having a 22-piece
orchestra at your disposal is unheard of,” Ryback said.