“Putting the KK Composers Cauldron into Türkiye’s Festivals"

International Ankara Festival at Bilkent Hall, April 29th 2024

Composer - Onur Türkmen
Libretto - Şebnem İşigüzel
Conductor - Orhun Orhon

Narrator - Pelin Şahin
Gılgamesh - Çağrı Turan
Enkidu - Özgür Deniz Kaya
Chorus - Rengin Güney, Tuğba Ezer, Alp Utku, Cem Değirmen
Violin - İmge Tilif
Viola - Ali Başeümezler
Violoncello - Gözde Yaşar
Double Bass (5 string) - Gizem Sözeri
Flute (+piccolo) - Beste Keleş
Oboe (+zurna) - Ulaş Yurtoğlu
Clarinets in Bb (+bass clarinet) - Fevzi Onur Ustabaş
Trombone - Cem Güngör
Percussion - Alican Öztan

Sound and visuals: Cem Önertürk

GILGAMESH
Synopsis, by Şebnem İşigüzel

The narrator is a female archaeologist who has come to Mesopotamia to complete an archaeological excavation. Tragically, the excavation house is attacked by terrorist groups, and the whole team including the chief archaeologist, lose their lives. The young archaeologist takes refuge in a cave where she tries to reconnect with the world using the last bits of her energy. This excavation has revealed one of the greatest archeological finds: Gilgamesh's tomb and the unmentioned thirteenth tablet of the epic. We witness her struggle to share these findings that were buried with Gilgamesh with the “civilized” world. Placed at one corner of the stage, she hallucinates the epic through the shadows within the cave’s mystical atmosphere. When the opposite side of the stage is contrastingly lightened to symbolize the inside of her mind, the narration of the epic becomes more vivid to highlight the parallels between Gilgamesh's quest for immortality and the young archeologist’s struggle for survival. The king’s chase for an unending life after the herb of immortality is conveyed, while her last hopes disappear as her tablet’s battery drains. Through this flow, the past and the present are inseparably merged, and we see the transformation of the original ancient text’s meaning in the context of today’s world. Eventually, the epic is completed with the mystical thirteenth tablet. Still, the narrator neither convinces the world about her explorations, nor is help likely to arrive while she is still alive. Such desperation resembles Gilgamesh’s acceptance of the non-existence of immortality. The narrator evokes the epic from the depths of her mind with comments and information to keep the audience engaged, and to retain a sense of curiosity and suspense throughout the drama. Consequently, the epic is staged with its original structure and with its most striking aspects highlighted.