Details
SJE Arts - St John the Evangelist Church
109A Iffley Road
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX4 1EH
England
Programme
Clare Norburn – Into The Melting Pot
Performers
The Telling
Programme Note
Clare Norburn soprano, writer
Ariane Prussner mezzo, percussion
Joy Smithharp percussion
Giles Lewinoud vielle
Fatima Lahham recorders
With Suzanne Ahmet as Blanca the Jewish Woman
Natalie Rowland & Pitch Black Lighting lighting design
Spain, July 1492: the deadline for the expulsion of the Jews is days away. At twilight a Jewish woman lights the lamps and starts up her spinning wheel. It is her last night in Seville. She tunes into voices of a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women from across the Spanish peninsula. Down the centuries, women’s stories of integration, love, the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish peninsula and racial intolerance are played out to a soundtrack of plaintive Sephardic songs and lively medieval Cantigas and instrumentals which fuse Christian, Jewish and Arabic instrumentation and styles. With atmospheric candlelight and lighting design.