Perhaps like many people in Europe, I was vaguely aware of the
story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus makes a trip to hell to plead for the
return of his beloved, but he misses out when, against instructions, he looks
back at her before she has escaped the underworld. But I did not know about
Layla and Majnun except through Western adaptations of the story such as Romeo
and Juliet. So I was intrigued when I saw that Valletta18 were including on
their programme an opera called Orfeo and Majnun, and were calling for
interested citizens to be part of the process leading up to the event in
October.
I have a background in Community Cultural Development and I
believe that communities are strong to the extent that people engage with
others in the continuous process of creating their culture. So ever since Malta
initiated the process of becoming European Capital of Culture, I have looked
out for ways in which I might contribute with other citizens to this year long
celebration of creative communities. Evaluations of previous European Capitals
of Culture are beginning to indicate that a significant measure of success is
the extent to which local people are engaged as creators as well as spectators.
Orfeo and Majnun appeared to be offering an opportunity to get involved in
creative ways.
The first hurdle was the on-line form that I had to complete. One
of the requirements was fluency in Maltese language. If I didn't tick the box,
I could not submit the form. So I decided that honesty about deception was the
best policy. I ticked the box and later, in a more open section of the form, I
explained that I couldn't speak Maltese but was interested in the process being
used in this project. I expected to hear no more. After all, my application to
be part of the grand opening event had resulted in stony silence after I
admitted that I was 74 years old and had little head for heights.
So I was excited when towards the end of 2017, I received an
invitation to a workshop with one of the creative directors of the opera, Aaron
Berg. I had no idea what to expect but I skimmed the two-page summaries of the
myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and of Layla and Majnun compiled by Valletta 2018
Foundation and walked over to Palazzo de la Salle.
The workshop was a delight. Many years have passed since I have
enjoyed the collective buzz of creative energy gathered together and inspired
by a challenging project where each participant can draw on their own spark to
build something new. Dancers, visual artists, movie makers, storytellers and
writers responded to two tasks on the theme of love, loss and longing. The
first task was an individual response drawing on a personal experience of loss
and leading to a presentation to the group. I used song and story to recount
the loss of a loved one that I talk about more fully in my second book, Songs
for a Blind Date (2014).
The second task called for small groups and required us to choose
a moment in one of the two myths and prepare something on that moment. I worked
with a young woman who was also a writer and we chose separate but linked
moments from Layla and Majnun. My co-worker wrote from the perspective of Layla
and the process of her death. I wrote from the mind of Majnun, trying to
imagine the moment in the desert when the two lovers meet and decide to
separate for ever. What was in Majnun's head, after being driven mad by love for
Layla, that he denied any possibility of realising his love? Again, I used song
and story:
In her eyes I see the Universe. I see
the stars at night, the sun in the morning on the edge of a barren plain. She
loves me and I drown in the truth of her eyes. I long for her love and I flee
from the truth of her eyes. Her eyes are greater than my songs. They consume
me. I cannot stay to drown in the truth of her eyes. I cannot go back to
the songs of madness and the bark of dogs. Her eyes turn me and I walk
away.
I was exhilarated by the workshop but did not expect to hear
further. Again I was surprised and pleased to be invited to another meeting
with Aaron Berg, along with project administrators and other artists chosen as
workshop leaders in the process that was intended to build a parkour atmosphere
in the streets surrounding Teatru Rjal where the main opera was to be staged.
This time the emphasis was not on creative engagement but on the practicalities
of matching the workshop leaders up with interested community groups. Now, my
critique of the stories, in terms of the focus on male protagonists with women
only as the object of loss and longing, was underlined by the apparent
composition of the community groups, that seemed to be weighted in favour of
men and boys. I advised that I wanted to work with a women only group. So now I
am waiting to hear if there are groups of women in Malta who are interested in
seeking to imagine how our myths and legends might be different when told from
the perspective of women. How is love, loss and longing different when a woman
is telling the story? Let me know if you'd like to be part of a group exploring
that idea.