Jenni Roditi - Siddhartha

A Music Theatre Opera.
Composer Jenni Roditi, Text Rebecca Swift
Conductor Odaline de la Martinez
Director Martin Lloyd-Evans
Commissioned by Lontano with funds provided by the London Arts Board

This year (2001) LONTANO is 25. As part of our Anniversary celebrations we are premiering the work of a composer with whom we have been associated for over a decade. Jenni Roditi's music is a fusion of many cultures finely meshed to produce a highly original voice. In Siddhartha we hear the improvisatory quality of the Indian ragas, the fearful spoken and danced rhythm of Flamenco with singers experienced in a variety of musical languages.

Siddhartha tells the story of one of the worlds great legends, that of Siddhartha, the Indian Prince who became the founder of Buddhism. The story is told through the eyes of a boy, himself a religious leader, who is held captive by a foreign power as he sings to his guard.

Inspired by a BBC documentary, "The Kingdom of the Lost Boy", which reported on the abduction of the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet in 1995, Siddhartha opens with a dramatic prelude. In it, a boy who was destined to become a spiritual leader in his own country is behind bars in a strange land. He sings of his plight and prays to be made one with the original Buddha through a process of meditation in order to escape his bleak present. By the end of the prelude he is reconnected with the object of his inspiration and transformed into Siddhartha who will tell his own story. The guard listens, at first unmoved.

Spirit Child, now Siddhartha, tells us that he is the son of a King and that it was prophesied at his birth that he become a great man: a Holy Man or King of Kings. His father the King, however is not happy to hear that his child may have a destiny against his own wishes. He orders that his courtiers build a golden palace with almighty walls to protect his son from the real world. Inside the palace he imagines, Siddhartha will find all he needs and never wish to leave. However, he notices that his son is moody and capable of deep sadness, which worries him. One day a swan flies over the palace and Siddhartha is horrified to feel its pain when it is shot down by his cousin Devdatta for sport. Siddhartha sings "So Suffering" and hurts himself with the sharp arrow that shot it down. He discovers an extrordinary capacity for empathy and wins the bird back to give it freedom. His father is so worried by his son's sensitive disposition that he arranges for him to choose a wife. Siddhartha chooses Yashodara whom he then wins in an archery contest with Devdatta. Siddhartha shows superhuman skills in the competition.

The King is worried. Despite the happiness Siddhartha has found in wife and child, he still shows signs of deep restlessness. Siddhartha asks his father if he can leave the palace. The King eventually agrees to let him go to the city where the ordinary people live, but he arranges with his son's friend Channa, that he go ahead and rid the city of everything or anyone old, ill or dying - or anything unhappy. Siddhartha enters the city and is amazed. He talks to a baker, a tailor and a flower seller. Meanwhile an old man has crept onto the stage. He warns him of the greatness of death and dies. Siddhartha is horrified. Channa finally tells him of the grim realities of life. Siddhartha wonders how anyone can be happy when we all suffer and die.

Siddhartha embarks on his spiritual quest proper and resolves to find a way to free people from human suffering. As he wanders, he comes across five religious ascetics who meditate earnestly. He joins them, but the work of the ascetics proves too much and he faints. A passing girl revives him with rice milk and implore him to be less hard on himself. Siddhartha decides he will avoid extremes and follow the middle way. Strengthened, he heads for the Bodhi tree where he meditates. Under the tree he is assailed by Mara the envious Lord of Illusion. Mara offers him a string of temptations, all of which Siddhartha manages to transcend. Mara, beaten, dissolves. Siddhartha experiences mental freedom in the form of enlightenment. He is now the Buddha. Buddha tells of his discoveries and preaches to the people. Channa finds him and leads him back to his father and wife with whom he is reconciled and who recognise his true greatness.

Siddhartha once again becomes the Spirit Child, behind bars, as if the whole story was a memory or dream. But now the bars are transformed with prayer flags placed around him.