M a s s a w a o p e r a
C o m p o s e r. & l i b r e t t i s t
A l a n G r i f f i t h s
Australia/New Zealand librettist and art music composer’s first opera Massawa, inspired by real events.
A b o u t M A S S A W A
Massawa is an opera composed for renown lyric bass Paul Whelan casting Whelan as lead. Whelan plays fictional character USSR Army Officer lieutenant Yuri Lenkov at the height of the first Cold War, before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Seen entirely through Lenkov’s eyes he is in Africa, assisting the Ethiopian army in its brutal occupation of Eritrea, in a war against the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF).
Whilst on leave, Lenkov meets and falls in love with EPLF nurse Ms Awate Kidame in the Eritrean port city Massawa, on the Red Sea. Kidame convinces the disillusioned Lenkov to defect to the EPLF. However, their love affair is discovered by Lenkov’s arch nemesis, KGB Colonel Maksim Stepanchikov, who blackmails Lenkov. He is to continue with his defection to spy on the EPLF. If Lenkov refuses, Stepanchikov will have Kidame killed.
Can Lenkov safely defect to the EPLF to protect Kidame? Will he survive Stepanchikov’s cunning web of deceit?