City Recital Hall, Sydney
July 25, 2018

William of Rubruck’s detailed report of his journey from Constantinople to the capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum, is one of the most significant works of mediaeval geographical literature. In their collaboration Karakorum, which opened in Sydney last night, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and French ‘mediaeval world folk’ ensemble La Camera delle Lacrime draw on the 13th-century Flemish Franciscan monk’s travels – during which he documented a myriad of different peoples, beliefs, animals and landscapes in a diary he would bring back to King Louis IX – to create a musical voyage onstage in which the mediaeval musics of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam mingle.

Playing the part of William, as Narrator, is actor David Wenham. Dressed in a black cloak, he delivers Michael Costi’s script (based on La Camera Director Khaï-dong Luong’s original concept and directed here by Constantine Costi) with thoughtful reverence, as if pondering each observation, before withdrawing to write in his journal as his story weaves together strands of music ranging from the French troubadour song Ay! Dieus to Buddhist hymns and Sufi chants.

Actor David Wenham. Photo © Steven Godbee

La Camera,...