The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a full-length work for orchestra (including a rock trio), singers and narrator by composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas with a libretto by Edward Kemp based on the novel by Salman Rushdie. The work features a film directed by Mike Figgis.

In trying to condense such a protean novel into an hour and a quarter of music-drama, the focus is on the central spine of the relationship between Ormus and Vina, with Rai fulfilling, as in the book, the role of narrator, onlooker and occasional participant in their story.  These are the only performers, though the inclusion of film makes it possible to give some sense of the wider world in which this story takes place.

The key to conveying something of the richness of the novel lies in the juxtaposition of words, music and image. For example, the orchestral prelude represents the earthquake that kills Vina and at the same time introduces the key ‘quake’ theme in the book, followed by a scene in which Vina and Ormus’ shared (and continents-apart) discovery of song is played out against images of Vina’s murdered family.

The libretto provides a structure within which such juxtaposed elements can be  comprehensible as well as have resonance.  The piece is in three sections – Bombay, England, America – mirroring the structure of the book and the westward journey of the protagonists.  Ormus’ two flights provide the links between sections.

The attraction of the novel for this treatment lies in its combination of central action, linguistic and geographical colour and underlying mythic elements. The fact that many of the earliest operas and oratorios dealt with the Orpheus myth makes this millennial re-imagining a particularly attractive source for a contemporary engagement with the form.