Unholy Wars OPERA @ A GLANCE
SET TING L A N G U AG E
Latin and Italian with English subtitles
F I R ST P E R F O R M E D
May 29,
2022 C O M P O S E D BY Mary Kouyoumdjian Claudio Monteverdi George Frederic Handel Giulio Caccini
L I B R E T TO Based on Claudio Monteverdi’s operatic scena Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. The libretto is drawn from Torquato Tasso’s La Gerusalemme Liberata.
C R E ATO R Karim Sulayaman is a Lebanese-American tenor. A native of Chicago, Karim’s musical education began with violin studies at age three through high school. He spent years as an alto in the Chicago Children’s Choir and was hand selected as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Orchestra. Karim graduated with high honors from Eastman School of Music and earned a Master’s degree from Rice University. In 2019, Karim along with collaborator Sean Shibe, won the Grammy award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Broken Branches, an personal project that explores the close musical ties between Eastern and Western cultures.
The Holy Land 11th century
LENGTH
70
minutes THEMES
identity and belonging, belief, cultural survival
C H A R AC T E R S Tancredi (bass-baritone) a Christian soldier who has fallen in love with Clorinda Clorinda (soprano) a Muslim woman who goes into battle disguised as a man The Narrator (tenor) Dancer
SY N O PS I S Reframed through a Middle Eastern lens, Unholy Wars is the narrated story of Tancredi, a Christian soldier, who falls in love with Clorinda, a Muslim woman who goes into battle disguised as man. Tancredi and Clorinda fight, not recognizing one another through their armor and the veil of night, Tancredi mortally wounds her; it is only when he removes her helmet that he recognizes his love. In her dying moments, Clorinda forgives Tancredi and asks to be baptized as a Christian so that she may see Heaven.