Nmon Ford writes and stars in contemporary take of Orpheus myth

Poster for Nmon Ford's Orfeus: A House Music Opera

Panamanian-American barihunk Nmon Ford will be fusing opera, house music and Greek mythology in his world premiere of Orfeus: A House Music Opera, running from from April 11-May 30 at the Young Vic in London. Tickets are available online.

Ford wrote the words, music and libretto and will star in this contemporary twist of Ovid's Orpheus and Eurydice. The show also features Phantom of the Opera star Franc D’Ambrosio, Gianni Arancio, Bernadette Bangura, Grace Farrell, Fiona Finsbury, Nathan Kiley, Fabiane Leame and Shaq Taylor. The production will be directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, who is best known for Motown: The Musical.

The piece is set in a dystopian future where Orfeus discovers his true nature while saving Euridice from a fascist ruler.

Composers who have written operas on the Orpheus legend include André Campra, Louis Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Matthew Locke, Claudio Monteverdi, Joseph Haydn, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jacques Offenbach, Hans Werner Henze, Harrison Birtwistle and, perhaps most famously, Christoph Willibald Gluck.

In recent seasons, Ford has sung Crown in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the English National Opera, Iago in Verdi's Otello with the Atlanta Symphony and Jochanaan in Richard Strauss' Salome with the Pittsburgh Opera.