Aède Of The Ocean and Land

ABOUT NOOR INAYAT KHAN

Noor Inayat Khan is best known in Europe for her heroism as a clandestine wireless radio operator and a secret agent working with the allies in occupied France during World War II.

She was born on New Year’s Day 1914 in Moscow. She was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century Muslim ruler of Mysore. Her father,  Hazrat Inayat Khan was a musician and Sufi teacher. Her mother was Amina Begum. Khan escaped to England after the fall of France and in November 1940 she joined the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). In late 1942, she was recruited to join SOE as a radio operator. In June 1943 she was flown to France to become the radio operator for the ‘Prosper’ resistance network in Paris, with the codename ‘Madeleine’.

In October, Khan was betrayed by a Frenchwoman and arrested by the Gestapo. For her courage, Noor Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949.

Twenty-two artists involved, 14 performing live simultaneously from Athens, New York, San Francisco, Den Haag and Rome and ten different time-zones.

Aède of the Ocean and Land is a digital cinematic new opera, one of the first LIVE operas on the digital stage: Cinematic = visual piece created live by Stephanie Sherriff & performers, new opera = a newly composed work by Shirish Korde. 

An innovative production based on the recently discovered play written by Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944), a celebrated British spy and author known affectionately as “Noor”. Aède of the Ocean and Land is a Sufi fable that borrows Homer’s Odyssey as a framework but subverts and re-interprets the epic poem by challenging patriarchy in a magical way. Aède is best described as a literary blend of East and West that imparts important universal truths, the central themes concerning love – personal, transcendental, and spiritual – and renunciation. Aède the opera will express this tapestry of Eastern and Western musical and artistic traditions.

Composer Shirish Korde defines the production with a score that fuses contemporary and world music styles including Hindustani, South Asian, Greek folk music and Contemporary American and European idioms. 

This production balances fable and fantasy, myth and spirituality, patriarchy and feminism, inviting the audience on the personal and spiritual journeys.

Sara Tarana Jobin on behalf of the Astana

Playwright: Noor Inayat Khan
Director: Elli Papakonstantinou
Composer: Shirish Korde
Choreography: Valia Papachristou
Video Art Designer: Stephanie Sheriff
Director’s Assistant: Ero Lefa
Technical Director: Charikleia Petraki
De Facto Producer: Tarana Sara Jobin

Musicians: Srinivas Reddy (sitar), Amit Kavthekar (Tabla), Jonathan Hess (percussion)
Cassatt String Quartet: Muneko Otani (violin), Jennifer Leshnower (violin), Ah Ling Neu (viola), Elizabeth LatifaNoor Anderson (cello)

Cast: Dashon Burton (Ulys), Emily Pulley (Penelope/Ire), Jennifer Zetlan (Telemachus), Lito Messini (Euryclee/Calypso/Nymph/Siren/Aphrodite), Kelvin Chan (Laerte/Hermes/River/Suitor/Warrior of the army of Ulys), Gemma Carbone (Euryclee/Sirene/Suitor/Eros/Warrior of the army of Ulys), Elias Husiak (Shepherd/River/Sirene/Poseidon/Suitor/Warrior of the army of Ulys), Adrian Freiling (Suitor/ Warrior of the army of Ulys), Kat Papachristou (Sirene/Suitor/ Warrior of the army of Ulys), Valia Papachristou (Sirene/Suitor/Pallas Athenee/Warrior of the army of Ulys), Laura Jobin-Acosta (Sirene/Mentor/Zeus/Apollo/Suitor/Warrior of the army of Ulys), Julia Rabia Rahm (Sirene/Suitor/Warrior of the army of Ulys)