Woman at Point Zero is an English and Arabic language multimedia opera in one act, with music by British composer Bushra El-Turk and libretto by South African writer Stacy Hardy.
[1] Besides accordion and cello, the musical score contains a variety of non-Western instruments, including the Armenian duduk, Korean daegeum, Japanese shō and Iranian kamancheh, played by musicians from Ensemble Zar.
[4] Woman at Point Zero was chosen by the jury of the Fedora-Generali Prize for Opera 2020, partly because of its compelling story, partly because it was a truly international partnership, but perhaps most of all because it was a combination of composer, librettist, director and filmmaker of emerging talent, which we want to bring to the world.The complete version was first performed as a production of the Belgian LOD Music Theatre [nl], with stage direction by Egyptian theatre director Laila Soliman, at the 2022 Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Naylor also praised the interpretation by Japanese conductor Kanako Abe, and stated that this and the multimedia elements contributed to the creation of an "aural dreamscape".
There are constantly blows, sobs, more or less muffled screams, creaks from the beds in which Fardous is penetrated again and again, tinkling of piasters and voices from the women who live in other cells.