Ravan's Death Scene from "Ayodhya" by Somtow

[miamisms]

BRAVO JOHN AMES.. BRAVO!

[somtow]

(cd)

The tenor is Charles Hens, a Dutchman, and the bass is John Ames for whom the role was especially composed. I discovered that he had a low A when he was doing Fafner for me in February. He was "marking" an octave lower and I was amazed to find that he was able to sing audibly, even loudly, in that register. He'll be back in Bangkok in July to do Hunding.

[drdre333]

Thank you for this info. I stumbled back upon this video again, and am happy to see what you wrote.

[somtow]

My opera "Ayodhya" is a distillation of the Ramayana (a huge epic poem which is the national epic of Thailand and several other countries) into a single evening. The Ministry of Culture decided that to show the death of Ravan on stage would be taboo and might be a bad omen. It all backfired somewhat when the international media picked up the story. You can find links to some of the newspaper stories by going to the article on me at Wikipedia ... someone added a whole section on that.

[drdre333]

Very interesting work. Please tell us the singers names (especially the bass!), a quick note about the work, and tell us why this work was almost censored. Thanks!