SONG OF SAKUNTALA
WORLD PREMIERE
JUNE 2026
Music by Timothy Nelson
Texts by Sarojini Naidu Rabindranath Tagore, Vidyapati
Direction and Dance by Hari Krishnan
WIth its story taken from India’s most famous dramatic work, Kalidasa’s 5th century play Shakuntala, itself made into an opera by composers such as Alfano and Schubert, this new opera by IN Series Artistic Director Timothy Nelson fuses Western baroque instruments with Indian classical instruments to create a “dance-opera” on the themes of love, loss, and redemption. Its libretto is formed from the texts of formational Indian poets from across centuries, as well as the sacred Mahabharata words. Imagined in the still of a concert of Indian classical music, it promises an evening like a “single song, permutated across the hours, in a mood of evocation and remembrance and longing illuminated by swirling, dizzying aspiration - meditation, yearning, whispering, calling, chanting, talking and touching late into the night.”
Featuring
Aryssa Leigh Burrs, Teresa Ferrara
PERFORMANCE DATES
Pop-Up Theater @ 340 Maple Drive SW, DC
June 6 at 7:30pm
June 7 at 2:30pm
June 12 at 7:30pm
June 13 at 7:30pm
June 14 at 2:30pm
Baltimore Theater Project - 45 West Preston Street
June 19 at 7:30pm
June 20 at 7:30pm
June 21 at 2:30pm
