In one of its most ambitious projects yet, Cambodian Living Arts has commissioned composer Sophy Him and librettist Catherine Filloux to create a Cambodian-American opera that reinvents the cherished Khmer story of Tum Teav, known as Cambodia’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Conceived and developed by CLA Board Chair and producer John Burt, the opera, Where Elephants Weep, tells a contemporary story of Sam, a Cambodian American who returns home following the war in search of his roots, and of his love affair with Bopha, a young karaoke star in Phnom Penh.
Composer Sophy Him, a Russian-trained professor of Western classical music at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, has been in residence in New York since July 2005, completing the opera’s score with acclaimed librettist Catherine Filloux, author of such Cambodia-themed plays as Eyes of the Heart and Photographs from S-21. Already, the opera has gathered momentum, and the opera’s executive producer, John Burt, and CLA-founder Arn Chorn-Pond were featured on the front page of the Arts section in the Sunday, December 18, 2005 issue of the New York Times as well as in a March 2006 article in the Lowell Sun, based in Lowell, MA.
Sophy and Catherine have participated in four workshops on the opera with a team of opera and music theater professionals gathered and led by John Burt, and the score and libretto are scheduled to be completed by June 2006.
The opera contributes to CLA’s mission to support Khmer artists in reviving their artistic heritage while exploring fresh ways to express traditions in rapidly changing times. The music fuses five traditional Khmer instruments with five Western rock and classical instruments. The lyrics are sung in both Khmer and English, and the production includes elements from both Khmer and Western theater. Thematically, the work addresses operatic and contemporary (but timeless) themes— romantic love, the erosion of traditions, corruption and the abuse of power, and changing notions of duty and obligation to the family.
Past CLA commissions have included a hip hop/traditional Khmer fusion CD by the US-based Khmer trio SEASIA, and a new shadow puppet production and nation-wide tour by the Phnom Penh-based theater company, Sovanna Phum, in which traditional shadow puppet theater was used as a forum to educate about HIV/AIDS.
A work-in-progress demonstration of parts of the opera score is scheduled to take place November 17, 2006 in Phnom Penh. An American workshop stage production will follow in early 2007.