Composer Bushra El Turk

Librettist Eleanor Knight

Conductor and Musical Director Toby Purser 

Director Michael Moxham

Co-Director  and Movement  Maria Koripas  

Designer Giulia Scrimieri

Soprano Enas Massalha

Ensemble Zar

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Every year an estimated 5000 women worldwide are murdered by their own families in so-called honour killings, 12 of them in the UK. 

 

'Silkmoth' places onstage a mother. We are her guests at home. This one-woman opera raises powerful questions: what is her role in this horrific 'tradition'? Is she a victim, submissive, or coldly complicit? But she conveys that, from the moment a daughter is born, she represents shame, dishonour and sexual provocation, all of which have to be washed away into non-existence. The raw energy of the ensemble is scattered around the space, engulfing the audience and the mother, to experience this audiovisual landscape that leads to its shocking cultural conclusion.