Ruinous Gods
Spoleto Festival USA today announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere performances of Ruinous Gods, a new full-length chamber opera by composer Layale Chaker and librettist Lisa Schlesinger, running from May 24-June 1, 2024.
Co-produced and co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA, Opera Wuppertal, and Nederlandse Reisopera, the work explores the trauma of refugee syndrome through an operatic dreamscape depicting resignation syndrome, a child’s psychological response to displacement. Tickets on sale January 26 with the announcement of Spoleto’s full programming for the 2024 season.
This production will be co-directed by theater directors, dramaturgists, and Zoukak Theatre Company founding members Omar Abi Azar and Maya Zbib, with costume design by Sarah Leterrier, scenic design by Joelle Aoun and lighting design by James Ingalls. Conductor Kamna Gupta will lead from the podium, and the cast includes Karim Sulayman (who made his Spoleto debut in 2022’s Unholy Wars) as Crow, Taylor-Alexis Dupont as Hannah, Teryn Kuzma as H'ala, Leroy Davis as Blue Dove and Dr. Undertow, Sharmay Musacchio as Swift, and Sarah Shafer as Sophia.
Karim Sulayman as Crow
Sharmay Musacchio as Swift
Joelle Aoun, Scenic Design
Jim Ingalls, Lighting Designer
Kamna Gupta, Conductor
Sarah Shafer as Sophia
Leroy Davis as Blue Dove and Dr. Undertow
Teryn Kuzma as H'ala
Grounded in testimonies from survivors and families of those afflicted with resignation syndrome, the evocative opera follows the experiences of a mother, Hannah, and her 12-year-old daughter, H’ala, who suffers from a traumatic response to the state of living in the limbo of displacement. Evident in refugee camps around the world, resignation syndrome causes the child, most often between the ages of 8 to 15, to fall into a non-responsive sleep.Loosely based on the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, Ruinous Gods traces H’ala’s journey to an “underworld” landscape where she is joined by other children who have fled their homes. As H’ala sleeps, Hannah navigates the effects of her daughter’s detachment and faces unforgiving realities of their refugee status. Though the work does not name a specific setting, pointed moments allude to camps on the island of Lesvos, the practice of familial separation, deadly water crossings, and a figure named “Jeb Fezos,” who represents society’s desensitization to billionaires’ gross spending on pet projects rather than initiatives for the common good. Despite the painful context of the characters’ situation, the work finds moments of friendship, empathy, humor, and hope in the darkest moments. In a joint statement, Schlesinger and composer Layale Chaker said: “Ruinous Gods challenges political otherness through music that amplifies marginalized voices and incites and fosters curiosity, connection, empathy, and openness. "Musically, the work is rooted in the traditions of Arabic Maqam and Western classical music.Created for six soloists, a chorus, and a chamber ensemble of strings, oboe/English horn, bassoon, flute, clarinet, harp, percussion, and piano, the score includes the use of amicrotonal keyboard. Said Chaker: “Its musical branches reach a multitude of musical landscapes and languages spanning contemporary classical music with influences fromArabic, Ottoman, Hindustani, Persian, Hindustani music, as well as jazz and free improvisation. It alludes in form and structure to the Chorus in ancient Greek tragedy, wholesome sung texts also stem from Babylonian and Assyrian divinations and incantations. The music of Ruinous Gods crosses different fields, including spoken word, pushing boundaries of forms and structures. Likewise, this musical experimentation aims to challenge canonical rules, rethinking microtonality, the relationships between untampered modality and tempered harmony, and cyclical and linear rhythms.”
About Layale Chaker
Deemed a “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine, violinist and composer Layale Chaker was raised on the verge of several musical streams since her childhood. She debuted her musical training at the National Higher Conservatory of Beirut in her native Lebanon and later pursued her musical studies at Conservatoire de Paris and the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Chaker’s musical world lies at the intersection of classical contemporary music, Jazz, ArabicMusic, and improvisation. She has worked with Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern DivanOrchestra, Ziad Rahbani, Johnny Gandelsman, Holland Baroque, Oxford Orchestra, New WorldSymphony, London Jazz Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Junger Kunstler Festival Bayreuth, LucerneFestival, Beethoven Festival Bonn, and Avignon Festival, among others. She has been featured atThe Berlin Philharmonic, Abbaye de Royaumont, Hancher, The Stone, National Sawdust, RoyalAlbert Hall, and the Wigmore Hall.
This season, she completed a year-long residency at WQXR, where she premiered a new work with her chamber jazz quintet, and completed a recording with string quartet ETHEL, released in summer of 2023. In June, she premiered a new work for violin and choir with the choral ensemble Capella Amsterdam, and in October 2023, her clarinet and violin concerto will premiere with the New York Philharmonic and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.
Inner Rhyme, her debut release with Sarafand, was listed as “Top of The World” by Songlines Magazine with a 5-star review, Top 10 NPR Best Releases, #1 for several weeks on the WorldCharts of iTunes and Amazon Music, and received praise by The New York Times, The Strad, Strings Magazine, Jazz World, and Rootsworld, among others.
A 2020-2022 Jerome Hill Fellow, Chaker is also a recipient of the Opera America Discovery 2022award, Nadia et Lili Boulanger 2019 laureate, finalist of the Rolex Mentor & Protege 2018 Prize, the recipient of the Diaphonique Franco-British Commission Prize 2019, the 2018 Arab Fund forArts and Culture Grant, the Royal Academy of Music 2018 Guinness Award, and the winner of theRuth Anderson 2017 Competition.
About Lisa Schlesinger
Lisa Schlesinger’s Middle Eastern theater activism works include Twenty-One Positions (BroadwayPlays Press) with Naomi Wallace and Abed Fattah AbuSrour; A Dream of the Sea, commissioned by Palestine National Theatre; and The Gaza Monologues with Ashtar Theatre. Schlesinger’s works range from intimate kitchen/table theatre to performance parades in occupied cities. Her plays include the Celestial Bodies Trilogy, Rock Ends Ahead (BBC International PlaywritingAward), and The Bones of Danny Winston (Sundance finalist). She is currently working on TheIphigenia Project, begun in 2014, a trans disciplinary series of collaborative works focused on the global refugee and immigration crisis. Iphigenia Point Blank, a film opera and the first full-length performance in the Project, will premiere in New York in 2023.
About Omar Abi Azar
Omar Abi Azar is a theatre director and founding member of Zoukak Theatre. Since 2006, he directed and been the dramaturg of several of Zoukak’s performances that toured in various cities in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, South Asia and Africa. He wascommissioned by international festivals, theatres and universities to create original work: NYUAD’sPerforming Arts Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center, University of Houston, Texas,Theater Festival Schwindelfrei Mannheim, Williams College, Massachusetts, among others. He was artist in residence at the Lift Festival, London, Sundance Theatre Lab, Utah among others. Since 2008, Omar has led psychosocial interventions with Zoukak, targeting various communities indifferent regions of Lebanon and abroad (in Serbia and in Calais’ Migrants’ Camp, France). He is also the curator of “Zoukak Sidewalks,” an international platform of performance and “Focus Liban,” a showcase of the work of local artists in Lebanon. In 2020, Omar Abi Azar was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in recognition of his contributions to the arts.
About Maya Zbib
Maya Zbib is a theatre director, performer, writer, trainer and co-founder and co-artistic director of Beirut’s Zoukak Theatre (2006) and Sidewalks Festival (2013). She’s been commissioned to create work for various international festivals, universities and venues, her performances, which most recently include The Love Project (2019) and Anatomy Titus (2022), have been shown around the world (Williams College, MUCEM museum, New York Public Library, LIFT festival, The RoyalCourt Theatre, International Theatre Festival of Kerala, The Southbank Center, Santiago a MilFestival, University of Houston). She teaches regularly at universities and in non-academic contexts, in Lebanon and abroad; with a focus on devising, physical theatre and writing. Zbib is a Chevening/KRSF Alumna (2007), Cultural Leadership International Alumna (2010), fellow of ISPA,NY (2010), was selected as protégée of Peter Sellars within the Rolex Mentor and Protégé ArtsInitiative (2011), represented the Arab Region as World Theatre Day message Author at UNESCO, and was honored within Cairo's 27th International Festival for Experimental Theatre (2020). As two-time finalist of the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award, she will receive Special Recognition in October 2023.
About Sarah Leterrier
Sarah Leterrier graduated from the National School of Applied Arts Duperré in 2000. She regularly exhibits her personal work as a painter and sculptor. Her work has been published inJoie Panique magazines. At the same time, her training as a visual artist encouraged her to follow multiple paths: she has designed costumes for Nathalie Garraud and Olivier Saccomano, Frédéric Bélier Garcia, Alain Françon, the Maladroits company, Pierre Notte, and for the opera companies of Marseille, Avignon and Nantes in collaboration with Catherine Leterrier. Leterrier has also been a textile designer for publications such as View on Colors by Li Edelkoort and IT Magazine, the creator of fashion accessories sold at Colette or HP deco, and a landscape designer with Arpents Paysages, notably at the Chaumont International festival in 2005. In 2022, she designed the costumes for Institut Ophelie, directed by Nathalie Garraud and Olivier Saccomano at the Théâtre des 13 vents in Montpellier and in October 2023 Sur la Cote Sud directed by Frédéric Bélier Garcia at the Comédie de Reims.
SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
Founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, Spoleto Festival USA is internationally recognized as America’s premier performing arts festival. For 17 days and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston’s historic theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with performances in opera; theater; dance; and chamber, symphonic, choral, and jazz music. Spoleto produces and presents work of the highest artistic caliber to diverse and adventurous audiences. Through innovation, education, and a commitment to community, Spoleto harnesses the power of the arts to foster a culture of belonging and deepen and engage the public appreciation for the arts in building a better world. Presenting more than 100 performances, the 2024 season takes place May 24 to June 9 in various locations on the downtown peninsula. Spoleto Festival USA is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.