''Ayodhya'' is an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

Somtow Sucharitkul S. P. Somtow (a rearrangement of his real name Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul; ; ; born December 30, 1952) is a Thai-American musical composer and conductor, and a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author writing in English as both Somtow Sucha ...

. It premiered on November 16, 2006 at the Thailand Cultural Center in Bangkok, in a production directed by Dutch director Hans Nieuwenhuis and featuring

Michael Chance Michael Chance CBE (born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. Early life Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After grow ...

as Ganesha, Nancy Yuen as Sita, Charles Hens as Rama, and John Ames as Ravan. The libretto is a distillation of the entire

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

epic into a single evening. The opera was composed as a special tribute to the

King of Thailand The monarchy of Thailand is the constitutional monarchy, constitutional form of government of Thailand (formerly ''Siam''). The king of Thailand (, historically, ''king of Siam''; ) is the head of state and head of the ruling Chakri dynasty. ...

as part of the nationwide celebration of the King's Sixtieth Regnal Year. However, the opening was marred by a censorship debate which was widely discussed in the international press.

References

{{English-opera-stub Operas by Somtow Sucharitkul 2006 operas Operas English-language operas