Composer Jürgen Simpson’s opera titled Air India [redacted] will premiere in Vancouver, Canada, this Friday 6 November. 

The work is a collaboration with poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar to commemorate the Air India bombing off the coast of Ireland thirty years ago. The project has been five years in the making and involves Irish composer Simpson – a founder member of The Jimmy Cake, British Columbia poet Saklikar (who was recently named the inaugural poet laureate for the city of Surrey in British Columbia) and Irish director Tom Creed and video artist John Galvin. It is produced and performed by the Canadian Turning Point Ensemble, conducted by Owen Underhill and features baritone Alexander Dobson, countertenor Daniel Cabena and soprano Zorana Sadiq. 

On 23 June 1985, Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by a bomb at 31,000 feet and crashed into the ocean off the coast of Cork. All 329 Canadians, Indians, Americans and Britons on board were killed, including 82 children. That same year, the people of Cork would start a fundraising campaign to build an Air India memorial in Ahakista, Co. Cork.

Indian-born Saklikar published Children of Air India in 2013. It is a collection of documentary-style poems that paints a portrait of the people who were forever affected by the tragedy. She was 23 when she lost her aunt Zebunnisa and uncle Umar in the disaster. Saklikar commented:

You come up against the limitations of art when you deal with a horrific tragedy… but in the end, for me, witnessing is important. This became an act of witness.

An audience member at one of her readings, Owen Underhill bought a copy of Saklikar’s book and sent it to Simpson, who had been researching the crash, which led to the eventual collaboration.

Air India [redacted] will have its world premiere at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts and run until 11 November. It uses a blend of theatre, voice, poetry and visual projections to transport the viewer to select moments before, during, and after the bombing. Commenting on the work, Simpson said,

It’s impossible to find closure here, so the artistic response is about enabling meditation on these events and finding a balance between their human perspective and the social, legal and ultimately troubling conflicts that caused these events to occur.

For more, watch the interview with Simpson below, or visit http://bit.ly/1MeAOLI