Teodor Currentzis, Utopia, Purcell: Indian Queen

In 2022, Teodor Currentzis fulfilled a dream by founding the ‘Utopia’ orchestra. The members come together from various international orchestras for ‘Utopia’ concerts on a project-by-project basis. One of them is Henry Purcell's semi-opera ‘The Indian Queen’, a work set in Central America that deals with fictional conflicts between the Aztecs and the Incas in a prologue and five acts, can be heard in the Philharmonie.

Together with director Peter Sellars, Currentzis has created a version that supplements the original score with songs, arias and sacred choral pieces by Purcell and places them in a new setting.

Using passages from Rosario Aguilar's novel ‘La niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies’ (‘The White Girl and the Birds without Feet’), the British-French actress Amira Casar narrates the story of the Spanish conquest of Central America from the perspective of three women.