Glyndebourne’s wartime history as a home for evacuee children is the ingenious context for a new production of this unclassifiable tale.
Ariadne auf Naxos
Glyndebourne
Opera
This opening episode follows the defiance in exile of Zohra conductor, Zarifa Adiba, now in Kyrgyzstan, and cellist Nazira Wali in the USA, as they watch in horror at the events unfolding back home.
Zohra was Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra, consisting of 30 girls and women from a Kabul orphanage. After the Taliban's brutal takeover, 25 of its members fled the country, facing rejection from their families and even death threats.
Weaving flashbacks of Zohra's triumphant past with their present struggle, "Keeping the Music Alive" reveals not just the loss of an orchestra but a symbol of women's rights under siege in Afghanistan.
(Director), (Director), Zafira Adiba (Self), Nazira Wali (Self)