Thoughts on Appropriation: Collaboration for Silkmoth

Writing the libretto for Bushra El-Turk's opera, Silkmoth, meant researching and telling stories that were not my own. What I found was that 'honour' violence is a conspicuous aspect of coercive, patriarchal control - the experience of which is all-too familiar.

When I was asked by composer Bushra El-Turk to write the libretto for a one-woman opera about honour violence I was faced with two major challenges: how to write a family drama for a single voice, and how to tell an authentic story that was not part of my own experience. Reflecting on what opera can do as a form and speaking to survivors of honour violence at the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO) at a time when the law in the UK about coercive control was being implemented shed new light on what had hitherto been regarded in some quarters as a cultural phenomenon. ‘Thoughts on Appropriation’ reflects on the creative processes that brought ‘Silkmoth’ to the stage and some of the tensions that arose as it passed into the repertoire.